Manyata's former husband claims order is ‘illegal’

Challenging the sessions court order clearing charges of bigamy and adultery against actor Sanjay Dutt and his partner Manyata, her first husband, Meraj-ur-Rehman Sheikh has moved the Bombay High Court saying that the lower court order is “illegal”.

Sheikh had moved the Bandra metropolitan magistrate court alleging that his wife Dilnasheen alias Manyata is still married to him and has yet to obtain a divorce from him. Sheikh said that Dutt and Manyata are in an “adulterous” relationship. The magistrate has ordered an enquiry and cleared Manyata of all charges.

The police report stated that Manyata married Sheikh in 2003. But after realising that Sheikh was a “conman, fraudster and a cheater” she approached a kazi for dissolution of marriage. After serving three notices to Sheikh and a public notice in a newspaper, the kazi “announced her marriage as dissolved”.

Sheikh is at present lodged at the Arthur Road Jail as he was arrested six months back for allegedly sending obscene messages over the cell phone to Bollywood actors like Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Kangana Ranaut.

The magistrate issued process against the couple on the ground that the kazi (who had dissolved Maanyata's marriage with Sheikh) has no powers to dissolve marriages.  The couple went into appeal in the sessions court which on May 28 passed an order clearing the couple of all charges. Maanyata’s lawyer, Shrikant Shivade argued that she had obtained a khula divorce from Sheikh which is a unilateral divorce obtained without consent of the husband.

Sheikh, in his appeal before the high court, states that he had a four-year-old child named Mustafa with Manyata and lives in Hyderabad. “There is nothing on record to show that the offer of khula was accepted or even communicated to Sheikh. Also, the sessions court cannot appreciate the evidence at this stage,” said Sheikhs’ lawyer Ravi Mungekar.
r_menaka@dnaindia.net