Allahabad High Court stays arrest of cricketer Yash Dayal in alleged sexual exploitation case

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to Royal Challenger Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Yash Dayal in a case of alleged ‘sexual exploitation’ of a woman on the pretext of marrying her.

The woman, a resident of Ghaziabad town, had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that the RCB player had physically exploited her for five years on the pretext of marrying her.

A division bench comprising Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Anil Kumar, in an oral observation, said that one could not be fooled for five years.

"One could be fooled for one day, two days, three days but not for five years. Five years…..you are entering into a relationship for five years….one can’t be fooled for five years," the bench observed orally while granting interim protection to the IPL cricketer.

Dayal had been booked under section 69 of the BNS (Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita), which deals with sexual intercourse with a woman based on false promise of marriage. The section outlines a punishment of imprisonment for up to ten years and fine.

The woman said that she had known Dayal for the past five years and that she had come into contact with him through social media. She also claimed that she had been to Dayal’s house several times and that the family members of Dayal and he himself kept assuring her that the player would marry her.

Dayal has denied the charges and alleged that the woman was trying to ‘blackmail’ him.