Court dismisses Dhananjay Munde's appeal against order to pay maintenance

Mumbai: A sessions court here on Saturday dismissed former Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde's appeal against an interim order of a magistrate, directing him to pay maintenance to a woman, who claims to be his first wife. The appeal by Munde, an NCP legislator, was dismissed by additional sessions judge Shaikh Akbar Shaikh Jafar. The detailed order was not available yet.

The Nationalist Congress Party leader had claimed in his appeal that he was never married to Karuna Munde, the applicant.

The magistrate did not apply his mind and passed an arbitrary order, he had argued.

The Bandra magistrate court on February 4 had partly allowed Karuna Munde's plea and directed Dhananjay Munde to pay Rs 1,25,000 per month to her and Rs 75,000 per month to their daughter as interim maintenance.

The magistrate had also refused to accept the former state minister's contention that he was not married to the woman.

The woman filed a domestic violence case against the NCP leader in 2020 and asked for interim maintenance. The magistrate is yet to decide the main plea.

In his appeal before the sessions court, the ex-minister said he was aggrieved by the order primarily because the magistrate had "erroneously" passed it on the basis that he was married to the woman and "thus there is domestic relationship between them".

Munde claimed that he had been introduced to the woman during a political party event and "their frequent interactions led to a personal relationship, which they mutually decided to pursue".

Two children were born out of the relationship, and Munde permitted his name and surname to be used for the official documentation of the children alone, the appeal said.

Furthermore, the woman was fully aware of the politician's existing marriage "but voluntarily chose to engage in a relationship with him", it claimed.

However, there was a drastic change in her behaviour after he won in the 2019 assembly election, got inducted into the state cabinet and began living with his wife Rajshri Munde at his official residence in Mumbai, it said.

Munde represents the Parli constituency in Beed district.

The woman and her family started "making repeated and unreasonable demands for large sums of money under various pretexts", it said.

Subsequently, the woman created multiple social media accounts under the name "Karuna Dhananjay Munde", falsely representing herself as his wife, the appeal said.

Dhananjay Munde had to resign last month after facing the heat over the arrest of his close aide Walmik Karad in the murder case of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in Beed district.