MS Dhoni, Arun Pandey links go beyond Rhiti Sports

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Rhiti Sports Management and its main promoter, Arun Pandey, might deny that Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds any share in the company, but what they cannot deny is that Pandey and Dhoni have been and continue to be business partners, spelling a high probability of conflict of interest for the Indian captain.

TOI accessed documents filed by at least two other firms with the ministry of corporate affairs which show that Dhoni and his family held shares in firms where the only other partners were Pandey and Rhiti Sports. Given this, Dhoni's financial interests coincide with those of Pandey and hence there is a conflict of interest between Rhiti Sports managing Team India players ( Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and Pragyan Ojha) and Dhoni having a role in their selection irrespective of whether or not Dhoni has any direct share in Rhiti Sports.

A detailed questionnaire sent to Arun Pandey early on Tuesday went unanswered.

One of these firms, Rhiti MSD Alamode Pvt Ltd, was floated under a resolution passed by the Rhiti Sports board on March 22, 2012. The company, incorporated on April 3, 2012 had a total of 10,000 shares of which Dhoni held 6,400 and his wife Sakshi held 100. Another 3,000 shares were held by Arun Pandey and 500 by Rhiti Sports through Pandey. Thus, 65% of the shares were held by Dhoni and his wife and 35% by Pandey and Rhiti Sports.

The three directors of this company were Sakshi, Pratima Tiwari (Pandey's sister) and Subhawati Pandey, Arun Pandey's mother who is also a director in Rhiti Sports. The registered office of Rhiti MSD Alamode is identical to that of Rhiti Sports, namely, Flat No. 7514, Sector-D, Pocket-7, Ground Floor, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.

The power of attorney to do the necessary paperwork for the company's incorporation was given to one Mohd. Nazim Khan, who was also the company secretary of Rhiti Sports when that company was incorporated in 2007.

Less than a year after it was incorporated, Rhiti MSD Alamode in its board meeting of March 15, 2013, resolved to give consent for forming a new joint venture named Sportsfit World Overseas Pvt Ltd. This was also barely a week before Rhiti Sports allotted 30,000 shares to Dhoni, an allotment that the company claims was only temporary.

Sportsfit World Overseas was incorporated on March 26 this year with Rhiti MSD Alamode holding 7,300 or 73% of the 10,000 shares, Pandey holding 100 shares and the remaining 2,600 shares being held by Sajid Shamim, son of the Mohd Nazim mentioned earlier. Given that 65% of Rhiti MSD Alamode shares were owned by the Dhoni family, this effectively meant that the Indian skipper controlled about 47.5% of Sportsfit equity. Arun Pandey and Sajid Shamim were appointed the first directors of this company.

Once again, the company address is the same as that of Rhiti Sports and Rhiti MSD Alamode. The documents show that this flat belongs to Subhawati and her son pays her a monthly rent of Rs 1,000 apart from the electricity and water bills under a rent agreement signed on behalf of Sportsfit.

Another link in the Rhiti-Dhoni chain is Rhiti MSD-N Motor Sports India Pvt Ltd, a firm that promotes motorcycle racing. This company was originally set up as N-Motor Sports India Pvt Ltd by two Bangalore-based businessmen, Nandish Shivanna Domlur and Amit Sandill, on April 23, 2012 with an authorised share capital of Rs 5 crore. While Domlur was to take 49.5 lakh shares, Sandill was to take the remaining 50,000 shares. On the same day, both wrote to the registrar of companies in Karnataka undertaking to bring their respective shares of equity "within a period of two months from the date of incorporation of the company". Both became director of the firm.

On July 31, 2012, documents show that the Rhiti MSD Alamode board resolved to invest Rs 2.25 crore in N-Motor Sports. (Strangely, while the document is filed by Rhiti MSD Alamode under its letterhead and signed by Pratima Tiwari on behalf of that company, the heading at the top says "certified true copy of the resolution passed at the meeting of the board of directors of Rhiti Sports Management". We presume that with so many companies having the same address and directors and similar names, this was an understandable typographical error). The next day, the board also resolved to allow N-Motor Sports, "an affiliate company", to use the words 'Rhiti MSD'.

In turn, N-Motor Sports in its board meeting on August 1, 2012, resolved to change the name of the firm to Rhiti MSD-N Sports India Pvt Ltd, a resolution ratified in a company EGM on August 20. On August 31, Arun Pandey and his mother Subhawati became the directors of the firm, thus bringing it firmly within the fold.

The documents filed by the company, which shifted its registered address from Bangalore to Delhi, do not reveal what the shareholding pattern is, but given the name, the investment by Rhiti MSD Alamode and the fact that the Pandeys now run the show, it is clearly part of the larger Pandey-Dhoni business empire.


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Keywords:Rhiti Sports ,Arun Pandey, Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni,business partners,Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina ,Pragyan Ojha,Sakshi,Pratima Tiwari, Subhawati Pandey,EGM,cricket news,sports news