‘I’m now Shivalik 2.0’: Former Mumbai Indians cricketer after rape FIR quashed

“I was arrested at 4 am (in May 2025) and taken to Jodhpur. I was taken to court and then sent to jail, where I spent 20 days before I was given bail. I was stunned, it had all come as a bolt from the blue, and it took me some time to understand what was happening,” Sharma said.

Once he had recovered from the shock, he began to look at his situation as a “test”, and turned to his “sportsman mindset”, Sharma said. But it was extremely difficult.

‘Reeking toilets, bad food’

“The 20 days in prison was a test and a lesson of sorts. Life was challenging. There were no fans, and there were no basic personal hygiene facilities such as the simple washing of hands before a meal… Inmates lived next to toilets, and the drainage was bad,” Sharma said.

He recalled that it was raining the day he was sent to prison, and there was a reeking toilet close to his cell. “The environment was bad, the meals were bad, you couldn’t eat beyond a few morsels… I fell sick, there were no medicines,” Sharma said.

Eventually, he found a way to structure his days, Sharma said. “I did feel the [legal] pressure, but when you have to spend time in a place, you need to adjust in some way… So I went to the jail library, and I met a teacher who incidentally was there for a case similar to mine…”

He made friends with a few other inmates, with whom he played cricket and volleyball, and went for walks, Sharma said. “I am in touch with the teacher, who remained in jail for almost a year and only recently got bail. I do feel that God was kind to me and I was able to get bail within 20 days,” he said.

Sharma’s broken engagement

The case against Sharma was filed after the breakdown of the engagement that was fixed by the two families in August 2023.

According to Sharma, the problems began after he was selected by Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2024 auction that was held in December 2023. Discussions over money, wedding expenses, and where the couple would live after they were married became increasingly difficult, Sharma said.

“Things began to change… Unexpected discussions about money and wedding finances creeped in. I think they (his fiancée’s family) thought that I would make it big immediately, and that the coming IPL season would bring in a lot of money,” Sharma said.

As it happened, Sharma, who was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs 20 lakh, did not get a game in the 2024 edition of the IPL, which was won by Kolkata Knight Riders.

At the heart of the trouble with his fiancée’s family was his insistence that he would carry out his responsibilities towards his parents, Sharma said.

“I was being pressured to stay separately from my parents after the wedding, which was not the initial idea or agreement. We have a spacious house in Vadodara and I am their only child… The differences grew wider as I did not agree to leaving my parents by themselves. So, when things began to turn sour, I decided to take a step back rather than carry a regret for the rest of my life. That decision did not go down well with them,” Sharma said.

‘Support from Hardik Pandya, Kiran More’

Sharma said that the support he received from his friends and the cricket fraternity after the FIR helped him through the crisis.

“When this (the arrest) happened, our neighbours and friends were the first ones to help us. [India cricketers] Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, and [former India wicketkeeper and chief selector] Kiran More supported me and stayed in touch with my parents… They provided mental support when I was in jail,” Sharma said.

The Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) was also supportive, Sharma said. “BCA told me that they would not sideline me because of personal issues. So, I was picked for the Ranji season of 2025 and played matches in October 2025,” he said.

It helped because “It ensured that my life was not altered in terms of a regular routine. The schedule was busy because of matches… I went ahead with what I had to do at that moment – to play cricket,” he said.

Sharma, who made his first class debut for Baroda in a Ranji Trophy match against Chhattisgarh in December 2018, last played in the Duleep Trophy quarter final match between West Zone and North Zone in Bengaluru from August 23-26 this year, and scored 22 and 27 runs.

He also played for Baroda in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season and the domestic T20 championship for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Sharma said he saw his ordeal as a reset in his journey, not the end. “I have strong faith in God and the justice system… I knew that it might take a year or two, but the truth will prevail. I have never harmed anyone or intended something wrong so something unfair would not last long,” he said.

The episode has also altered his idea of what constitutes an ordinary life, he said. “It has changed me as a person. I now realise that something as simple as a person doing a 9-to-5 job and coming back home to his family is in itself some kind of a miracle.”

Sharma said he is now looking forward to his next innings, the next season, and the next opportunity. “Being a sportsperson is about having resilience. This was a test, and I have cleared it. Life has ways of teaching patience and making us strong… I think I am now Shivalik 2.0,” he said.

Consensual relationship: What the court said

As per the submissions of the prosecution noted in the Rajasthan High Court judgment, the woman alleged that the relationship became physical on the assurance of marriage, and that the subsequent breaking of the engagement amounted to “false promise”.

The prosecution and the complainant opposed Sharma’s plea to quash the FIR, arguing that the allegations disclosed an offence and that the matter should not be terminated at the preliminary stage.

The High Court examined the circumstances surrounding the relationship, including the engagement, the continued association between Sharma and the complainant, as well as their “consensual” stay together at various places during the period of their engagement.

The court also perused the material placed before it such as WhatsApp conversations and photographs, as well as financial transactions even during the period of the dispute.

Sharma’s lawyers argued that the two individuals were “educated adults” who had been in a consensual relationship, and that the material on record did not show that any false promise of marriage had been made from the outset.

The Rajasthan HC cited several Supreme Court judgments distinguishing a genuine consensual relationship that subsequently broke down from a “sexual relationship induced by a promise of marriage that was false when made”.

The court concluded that the material before it did not establish that the promise of marriage had been false from the beginning, and considered the submission that continuation of the criminal proceedings would amount to an “abuse of the process of law”.

The FIR and consequential proceedings were quashed.

In his order pronounced on September 17 (made available on September 24),

Justice Ravi Chirania of the Rajasthan HC stated: “This Court finds that the relationship between them was consensual in nature and any kind of dispute in their consensual relationship would not give a colour of offence under (sections of rape) of the IPC, 1860.”