An Indore family court has granted a divorce decree to the wife of Narayan Sai, rape convict and jailed son of self-proclaimed godman Asaram, and ordered him to pay her a permanent maintenance of Rs 2 crore within three months, the woman's lawyer has said.
Narayan Sai is lodged in a jail in Surat district of Gujarat after being sentenced to life imprisonment in a rape case.
The court's order of April 2 dissolves his 18-year-old marriage, Anuragchandra Goyal, the lawyer representing Narayan Sai's Indore-based wife, Janaki Harpalani, told reporters on Tuesday.
Goyal said his client had filed a divorce petition in the local family court in 2018, alleging mental cruelty and other charges against her husband, and seeking a lump sum maintenance of Rs 5 crore.
According to Goyal, although Narayan Sai denied these allegations in the court, his client presented “solid documentary evidence” in the divorce petition filed against her husband.
“After hearing arguments from both parties, a family court judge approved the petition on April 2 and ordered that Narayan Sai pay a permanent maintenance amount of Rs 2 crore to Janaki within three months,” the lawyer said.
Goyal said the couple got married in 2008 and has no children.
At the previous hearing in the divorce case on March 24, Narayan Sai was produced before the family court amid tight security to record his statement.
In 2018, the family court had ordered Narayan Sai to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 50,000 to his wife.
Janaki's lawyer Goyal said, “In the last eight years, no maintenance amount has been paid to my client by Narayan Sai.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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