‘Complainant not affected’: Maharashtra court rejects police plea to investigate man’s marriage to twin sisters
A Maharashtra court has denied permission to the police to investigate the non-cognizable offence registered against a man who married twin sisters in a ceremony held in the Akluj area of Solapur district in the first week of December, the district police said.
The wedding – the photos of which were widely circulated on social media – took place at a hotel located in Malegaon village on Welapur Road on December 2. The 36-year-old twins from a Mumbai suburb got married to a man identified as Atul Awatade, who hails from Mahalung village in the Akluj area.
Based on a complaint filed by Rahul Phule, a social worker from Akluj, the Solapur district police had on December 4 registered a non-cognizable offence against Awatade under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 494 pertains to marrying again during the lifetime of the husband or wife and attracts imprisonment for a term that may extend to seven years and a fine.
In the case of a non-cognizable offence, the police or investigating agency requires the court’s nod to initiate a probe and make arrests as against a cognizable offence where the police can initiate action on their own. After the Solapur police approached the competent court in Malshiras taluka of Solapur, the court last week rejected the plea to probe the case.
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PremiumWhile rejecting the police plea, the court cited Section 198 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code which states that ‘No court shall take cognisance of an offence punishable under chapter 20 of the Indian Penal Code (of the offences relating to the marriage) except upon a complaint made by some person aggrieved by the offence’, officials said.
“It appears that the informant is a third person not related to either of the parties to the marriage. The informant does not state in the NCR as to how he is aggrieved by the alleged act. The informant is not a party to the aforesaid marriage…Therefore, in my opinion, he is not entitled to file a complaint in respect of the alleged offence,” the court observed in its ruling,
Superintendent of Police for Solapur Rural, Shirish Sardeshpande, said, “If a directly aggrieved party in the case approaches us, we will take note and register a case accordingly.”
