Karnataka HC no to quashing criminal proceedings in bigamy case

BENGALURU: A 77-year-old man with three wives will have to continue facing criminal proceedings over bigamy initiated by his first wife, who he is married to for 54 years, after the Karnataka High Court declined to quash the proceedings on the grounds of delay, and citing it as “continuing offence”. 

The now-septuagenarian man, Anand C aka Anku Gowda, a businessman, married Chandramma (70), on May 2, 1968. In 1972-73, he married Chandramma’s sister with the former’s consent. He then tied the knot for the third time in 1993 with a woman named Varalakshmi with the consent of his first two wives. 

However, Chandramma filed a private complaint before the trial court at Channapatna in early 2018 under Sections 494 of the Indian Penal Code for bigamy. Summons were issued to Gowda and Varalakshmi on February 8, 2021, after taking cognisance of the offences. Besides, a dispute with regard to distribution of properties was raked up by registering the private complaint.

Noting that bigamy is a “continuing offence” and distinguishable from the one committed once and for all, Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed the petition filed by Gowda and Varalakshmi which questioned the private complaint and sought quashing the criminal proceedings against them.

The court said the third marriage of the petitioner (Gowda) was admitted even in the petition. Therefore, the petitioner has admitted that he has contracted three marriages. “If admitted facts are taken note of, it cannot be in doubt that the petitioner has contracted the second and even the third marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage with the complainant … no further interpretation need be given, as even today, the petitioner admits that he is the husband of three women. Therefore, he is in the web of the offence punishable for bigamy. The proceedings against him and his third wife cannot be quashed as the offence is admitted by him,” the court said.