MUMBAI, 20 March 2008 — Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt annulled his marriage to former actress Manyata Dilnawaz Shaikh at a local court on Tuesday.
The 48-year-old actor who had recently married his longtime girlfriend in Goa, was forced to seek an annulment after a man claimed to be Manyata’s husband and said the pair had never been divorced.
Judicial Magistrate First Class of Bandra court Pankaj Shah held Dutt and Manyata guilty under sections 494, 495 and 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for marrying twice and having illicit relations. Dutt and Manyata are scheduled to appear before the court on April 1 to respond to the charges.
Manyata’s husband Mairaj Rehman Shaikh, who is currently incarcerated in a Mumbai prison for making obscene and threatening phone calls to several Bollywood actresses, said in his complaint to the magistrate that he and Manyata were legally married according to Shariah law.
Mairaj also said that he and Manyata have a son who is staying with his parents in Dubai. He claims that Manyata severed her relationship with him when she was pregnant but never sought a divorce.
However, Manyata denied all allegations leveled by Mairaj and claimed that she had obtained a divorce by Mairaj through a Shariah judge.
The police produced Manyata’s divorce papers to the court but the judge ruled that a Shariah judge was not legally authorized to grant a divorce and it was only the husband who had the right to divorce his wife. As a result, not only is Manyata the legally wedded wife of Mairaj but both Dutt and Manyta have committed a crime and are subjected to prosecution under three sections of the Indian law, the judge said.
