A special POCSO court in Jaipur denied anticipatory bail to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fast bowler Yash Dayal in a serious case involving the repeated rape of a minor girl over two and a half years.

An FIR has been filed at Jaipur's Sanganer Sadar police station, where the underage complainant claims Dayal seduced her with promises of boosting her cricket career, emotionally blackmailed her, and raped her repeatedly over the course of two and a half years, including at hotels in Jaipur and Kanpur.

The police are treating chats, images, and videos retrieved from the girl's mobile device, as well as call and hotel stay records, as crucial evidence under POCSO rules.

In her ruling, Special POCSO Court No. 3 judge Alka Bansal stated that, based on the victim's statement, the existing evidence, and the circumstances of the case, the accused could not be granted protection from arrest pending inquiry. The court emphasized that instances involving minors demand extra prudence and sensitivity.

This follows a July 2025 FIR registration, marking it as Dayal's second such case after a Ghaziabad complaint where the Allahabad High Court stayed the arrest.

Dayal's lawyer, Kunal Jaiman, claimed that the meetings were only held in public, that the girl pretended to be an adult, collected money for financial reasons, and filed the extortion complaint, which was linked to the Ghaziabad case.

The defense depicted Dayal as a "respected cricketer" targeted by a plot, promising to cooperate with investigators. Despite this, the court upheld the seriousness of the POCSO charges and denied protection.

Its consequences might be severe, since Yash Dayal will lose not only his IPL contract with the RCB, but also the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA), and the BCCI may prohibit cricket if he is found guilty.

(India Today/NDTV inputs)