HC grants pre-arrest bail to US-based man facing matrimonial

The Madras High Court has granted conditional anticipatory bail to a US-based man in a cheating case against him on a complaint by his estranged wife here accusing him of having suppressed his first marriage.
Allowing the plea of Laxmi Narayan Sriram, employed in the US, Justice S Vaidyanathan noted that this was a matrimonial issue between the petitioner and the de facto complainant (wife).
It directed him to appear before the Inspector of Guindy all women police station on September 6 and cooperate in the inquiry into the charges levelled against him.
Directing police not to arrest the petitioner till October 17, the next date of hearing, the judge also asked them to complete the petition (preliminary) enquiry and either proceed further or drop further action and file a status report.

He directed the petitioner to hand over his passport at the metropolitan magistrate court in Saidapet within seven working days from the date of his arrival in the country.
Whenever he planned to travel abroad, he should submit his tour plan or scheduleand certified copy of the passport before the magistratefour days prior to his departure and take his original passport, the judge said.

The petitioner submitted a case had been registered at the Guindy station this year on a complaint by his wife accusing him of having suppressed his first marriage and divorce proceedings pending in the US at the time of entering into wedlock with her here on March 24, 2011.

Rejecting the charges made by his wife, the petitioner submitted she had been informed by him about the first marriage and the decreeof nullity obtained with regard to it.
Knowing this, she had agreed to the marriage, but after living with him for five years had given a false complaint, he claimed.
He alleged his wife was having 'intimacy' with self-styled godman Shiva Shankar Baba and had been acting on his instructions. There was no conducive atmosphere for the spouses to live together, he contended.
When the petitioner's family tried to redress this issue, his wife demanded Rs 2 crore to settle the same, he said, adding divorce alone would be good for both sides and he was willing to pay a 'reasonable compensation'.