1 week Ago By Asseem Shaikh
Pune: Not paying maintenance arrears to his wife and daughter landed a Chakan-based fruit trader in jail. On March 25, the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class V P Khandare sentenced the 35-year-old man to 30 days' simple imprisonment in a domestic violence case for failure to pay dues of Rs 1.62 lakh for six months, from March 3, 2024, to Sept 2, 2024.
The court said the trader would be released from jail forthwith if he paid the maintenance. The Chakan police on Tuesday arrested the trader on a non-bailable warrant issued by the court on March 4. He was produced before the court, following which he was sent to Yerawada Central Prison after he expressed his inability to pay dues to his wife.
Magistrate Khandare, in his three-page order, observed, "The husband's conduct shows that he is not willing to discharge his moral duty and fulfil his legal obligations by paying the maintenance amount. He is reluctant to pay the dues on the maintenance amount despite being given sufficient time and opportunities. He is in default of maintenance dues and liable to be punished for disobedience of the court order under provisions of Section 125 (3) of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
" The CrPC section allows a magistrate to issue a warrant to recover unpaid maintenance. The couple got married in 2013 and has been residing separately because of domestic disputes since 2019. In 2022, the wife, a homemaker, through her advocate Jaipal Patil, filed a plea in the magisterial court praying for granting of maintenance under the CrPC.
On August 26, 2022, the court awarded her maintenance of Rs 27,000 per month. But her husband did not comply with the court's order, and a total outstanding amount of Rs 14 lakh had not been paid to date. The situation compelled the woman to apply for non-bailable warrant to recover the pending dues.
Patil told TOI, "Initially, when the man was arrested and produced before the court, he was given an opportunity to pay a year's maintenance of Rs 3.24 lakh to his wife. The court later asked him to pay Rs 1.
62 lakh for a period of six months to his wife. But he expressed his inability to pay. He was then taken into custody and sent to jail.
" The trader pleaded for an undertaking in the court that he would pay dues to his wife, but the court was of the view that several warrants were issued in the past to recover the arrears, but these returned without execution, following which an arrest warrant was issued..
