Court Sees Man Who Hid 4 Previous Marriages From His Wife

A Bombay high court has denied pre-arrest bail to a man accused of cheating after his wife submitted a complaint stating that he had married four times before and concealed it from her.

“…the offence of cheating is clearly made out apart from other offences. No case for grant of anticipatory bail order is made out,” said Justice Sarang Kotwal in the Jan 17 order.

The wife’s lawsuit stated that she discovered his profile on a matrimonial site. They met in April 2022 and were married on June 15, 2022. After their marriage, he approached her for money. She gave him Rs 7 lakhs. He also promised her necklace to get a loan of Rs 32 lakh.

She learned of his affair with a colleague in December, and she returned to her parents’ home in January 2023. Following her inquiries, she discovered that he had been married four times before.

The FIR was filed in court on August 7, 2023, by the Rasayani police station in Raigad district for criminal breach of trust, cheating, bigamy, cruelty, and intimidation.

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The man’s attorney denied the charges. After his first wife died, he married just the complainant, with no others in between. However, the wife’s counsel presented documentation proving his previous marriages to other women, as well as birth certificates naming him as the father.

Justice Kotwal took note of the two birth certificates, which had different mothers’ names but the same man’s name and listed him as the father of both children.

“Thus, there are two birth certificates in the year 2009, in respect of two girls in which mothers were different but the father is the applicant himself,” Justice Kotwal added.

He further mentioned that a divorce by mutual consent process was initiated in 2008 and that another divorce proceeding has been underway since 2018.

“Thus, there is sufficient material to show that the applicant has cheated many women. All this was concealed from the present first informant (wife),” said Justice Kotwal, rejecting the man’s application.

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