Jaipur, Jan 23 (IANS) The Rajasthan High Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to IPL champion and Royal Challengers Bengaluru fast bowler Yash Dayal in connection with a rape case. Justice Ganeshram Meena passed the order while hearing Dayal’s anticipatory bail application and directed him to appear before the investigating officer (IO) by January 30.
An FIR has been registered against him at the Sanganer police station in Jaipur. Dayal’s counsel Chandrashekhar Sharma informed the court that during the previous hearing, the court had directed the IO to appear along with the case diary. The IO complied and was present in court on Friday.
The defence submitted that the FIR was registered nearly two years after the alleged incident and assured the court of full cooperation with the investigation. After hearing the submissions, the court granted interim protection from arrest.
It may be noted that Dayal approached the High Court after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the POCSO court.
According to Dayal’s lawyer, the cricketer always met the complainant in public places and in the presence of other team members. The defence claimed that the two never met alone in secluded locations.
It was also argued that the complainant never stated that she was under 18 years of age during their interactions, nor did the FIR mention that she was a minor at the time of the alleged incident.
The defence further questioned why, if the alleged rape occurred in Kanpur, the complainant continued to travel with the petitioner to different cities afterwards, stating that this aspect was not clarified in the FIR. Additionally, the defence pointed out that the Jaipur case was filed eight days after the complainant received relief from the Allahabad High Court in a rape case registered in Uttar Pradesh.
Yash Dayal has been named in an FIR alleging repeated sexual assault in 2023 on a minor from Jaipur, weeks after a rape complaint was filed against him in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad by a woman who accused him of “exploiting” her.
The then SHO Anil Kumar Jaiman of Sanganer Sadar police station had confirmed the cricketer’s identity based on the FIR registered under Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which mandates a minimum jail term of 10 years, and relevant sections of the POCSO Act.
The complaint alleged that Dayal, a fast bowler playing for IPL-winning franchise RCB, raped the then 17-year-old survivor first in 2023 and again in a Jaipur hotel.
“It is alleged that around two years ago, when the complainant was a minor, he raped her on multiple occasions after offering to help build her cricket career,” Jaiman had said earlier. “This year, he contacted her again when he was in Jaipur on IPL duty, called her to his hotel and allegedly raped her there,” he had added.
–IANS
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