An FIR has been filed against the CEO of a Gurgaon-based firm and a former employee of Shikhar Dhawan for allegedly defrauding the former Indian cricket player and unlawfully utilising his images for promotional purposes during the Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai earlier this year.
After a representative of Shikhar Dhawan DaOne Group submitted a complaint, the lawsuit was registered.
The accusation claims that the two unlawfully renewed an expired endorsement arrangement with a brand in order to profit by misrepresenting themselves as Shikhar Dhawan authorised agents. The ex-employee, who currently owns Elevate Athletes Creators Ecosystem, is charged with misleading customers by taking use of his previous connection to Dhawan.
Despite not having a current deal with the company, Dhawan, who visited the recently concluded Asia Cup, was reportedly taken aback to see his images and videos prominently featured on stadium screens advertising the brand. Elevate Athletes and Parthtech Developers inked an agreement on March 10, 2025, which Da One Group later discovered had extended the contract for another year. Parthtech paid INR 40 lakh for the aforementioned extension, believing the documents to be authentic; the accused allegedly kept all of the money.
According to the complaint, Shikhar Dhawan initial contract with Parthtech was signed by the former employee when he was the CEO of DaOne Group and ran from April 16, 2024, until April 15, 2025. A board resolution limited his authority, and it ended when he departed the company in September 2024 and his contract terminated in April 2025.
“We have filed the FIR after getting the complaint. According to a senior police source cited by the Times of India, “the individuals concerned will be called to join the investigation and appropriate legal action will be taken against them.”
The former worker apparently persisted in posing as Shikhar Dhawan official agent in public, though. The complaint further claimed that the two had falsely claimed that Elevate Athletes had the sole authority to handle Dhawan’s endorsements by presenting a falsified representation agreement dated December 20, 2024.
The creator of the firm stated, “It cannot happen that we endorsed him without informing him because we are all from the same industry.”
Da One Group also encouraged the police to retrieve the fake documents right away, expressing fear that the accused might still have them and use them to deceive clients. In accordance with the complaint, a formal complaint has been filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) under sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable documents), 340 (using forged documents as genuine), and 61 (criminal conspiracy).
India
