Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday stayed the arrest of cricketer Yash Dayal in connection with an FIR against him for allegedly sexually exploiting a woman.

A bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Anil Kumar passed the order on Dayal’s petition challenging the FIR.

Staying his arrest, the court asked state counsel to file a counter affidavit and also issued notices to the complainant to file her counter in the matter.

The FIR against 27-year-old Dayal, who plays for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL, was registered on July 6 at the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad district under Section 69 (Sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means etc.) of the BNS. Dayal has been accused of sexually exploiting a woman on the pretext of marriage.

He argued that however a bare perusal of the averments made in the FIR reflects that the informant was in relationship with the petitioner for the past five years.

She kept silent for a very long time and as when the petitioner was selected in the Indian cricket team, the FIR with an oblique motive was lodged for extorting onerous and arbitrary demands, the counsel further argued.

He said the petitioner during the course of the relationship had provided financial support to the informant.

In fact, the petitioner never made any false promise to the informant. Moreover, allegations in the FIR do not disclose that the petitioner has had sexual intercourse with the informant by deceitful means. In fact, this FIR by the informant has been lodged after the relationship between the parties turned sour, the counsel claimed.

The additional government advocate argued that the informant has stated in her FIR that the petitioner was persistently exploiting her physically and was making physical relationship for the past five years and had also introduced her to his family on the pretext of marriage.

The manner in which the petitioner involved the informant with his family members is sufficient to show that he was making false promise of marriage.

The court said, “We have perused the FIR, from which it is apparent that relationship between the parties continued for a span of five years. At this stage, it is difficult to ascertain whether there was any promise of marriage or if there was any such promise, it was a false one from the very beginning with an intention to obtain sexual consent. The matter requires consideration.”

“Till the next date of listing or till the submission of police report, whichever is earlier, the petitioner shall not be arrested,” the court added.

In his petition, Dayal had sought stay of his arrest in the matter as well as quashing of the FIR registered against him.

According to the complainant, the two had met around five years ago, and Dayal had promised to marry her. The woman also claimed that Dayal kept postponing her proposal to marry, and eventually, she came to know Dayal was involved with other women as well.

The complaint was initially submitted on June 21 via the chief minister’s online grievance portal (IGRS).