Among the many beneficiaries of the Amrapali Group's homebuyers' money was Rhiti Sports Management — the company that handles contracts for former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Now, with the Supreme Court directing repayment of all sums that stood diverted by Amrapali Group to persons or firms, Dhoni's management firm has one month to return a sum of Rs 6.52 crore received from one of the Amrapali companies.
"Mr Dependable" Dhoni was at one time the brand ambassador of the Amrapali Group. On a forensic audit commissioned by the Court, details emerged that Dhoni also had deep business links with the beleaguered group. The report by the two auditors showed that a company by the name Amrapali Mahi Developers was floated, with Dhoni's wife Shakshi listed as a director. It was to develop a residential complex in Ranchi.
The auditors' report notes, "The company received share capital in cash and all expenses were paid in cash only." The details of these transactions could not be accessed by the auditors.
However, what the auditors did lay hands on was a transaction between Dhoni's manager firm with Amrapali Sapphire Developers for a sum of Rs 6.52 crore. This amount was received between 2009 and 2015. The auditors claim that this sum was paid on account of agreements executed by Amrapali CMD Anil Kumar Sharma for and on behalf of Amrapali Group, one of them with the right to logo display in the IPL when Dhoni was the captain of the Chennai Super Kings. However, this agreement was a "sham" as it was on plain paper without any signatory on behalf of Chennai Super Kings. Based on this, the auditors concluded, "We feel that homebuyers' money has been diverted illegally and wrongly to Rhiti Sports Management and should be recovered from them." This conclusion of the auditors came to be endorsed in the apex court judgment on July 23.