High Court junks plea to quash criminal proceedings against Sanghmitra Maurya

In this matter, a non-bailable warrant was issued on April 3, 2024. The court had previously dismissed the same plea of Swami Prasad Maurya on April 12, 2024, in the same case.

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court dismissed a plea by BJP MP from Budaun, Sanghmitra Maurya, challenging an order of the Lucknow ACJM, in the criminal proceedings initiated against her for allegedly marrying a second time without obtaining a divorce from her husband.

After reviewing the complaint and statements of his witnesses, the ACJM summoned both to face trial under sections 420 and 494 of the IPC. (Sourced)

A bench of justice Jaspreet Singh recently passed the order on the petition of Sanghmitra challenging the order of Lucknow additional chief judicial magistrate, who had on Nov 17, 2023, summoned Sanghmitra and her father and former Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya to face the trial under sections 420 (cheating) and 494 (marrying for the second time during the subsistence of the first marriage) of IPC.

In this matter, a non-bailable warrant was issued on April 3, 2024. The court had previously dismissed the same plea of Swami Prasad Maurya on April 12, 2024, in the same case.

As per the prosecution, Deepak Kumar Swarnkar filed a complaint before the court of Lucknow ACJM, alleging that he had been in a live-in relationship with Sanghmitra since 2016. Later, they got married on January 3, 2019, at her residence. Swarnkar further alleged that Sanghmitra’s father, Swami Prasad Maurya, had informed him at that time that she had divorced her previous husband, which later turned out to be untrue. Sanghmitra only obtained a divorce from her husband in 2021, he further alleged.

The complainant alleged that when he suggested to Sanghamitra that they should remarry because the divorce had only taken place in 2021, as their previous marriage on January 3, 2019 was legally invalid, he was threatened with serious consequences. On the other hand, the petitioner’s counsel contended that there was no specific role against the petitioner, and the allegations in the complaint were simply a concoction of facts

After reviewing the complaint and statements of his witnesses, the ACJM summoned both to face trial under sections 420 and 494 of the IPC. Swami Prasad Maurya had earlier challenged this order of the ACJM in the high court, but the court dismissed his petition on April 12, 2024.

Now, the court has also dismissed Sanghmitra’s petition in the same case, observing that “ ...This court does not find any merit, and the application under section 482 Cr.P.C. is dismissed.”