Wife uses RTI to establish man’s bigamy

Surat: When a 33-year-old woman learned that her husband had married another woman without divorcing her and that his ‘second wife' had had a baby, she filed an Right To Information (RTI) application with civic authorities to establish his bigamy. The reply to the RTI application stated that her husband was the father of the newborn. Based on the reply, she filed an FIR with Godadara police against her husband for bigamy and her in-laws for demanding dowry and threatening her.
The FIR states that the woman's wedding was initially scheduled for May 2019, at Tulsi Party Plot in the Godadara area. Her husband and in-laws arrived with the ‘baarat'. Before the wedding ceremony, his family demanded Rs 5 lakh in cash, a 15-gram gold ring and a Bullet motorcycle. As her father was unable to provide the dowry, the groom and his family returned with the baarat and called off the wedding. Relatives intervened and persuaded the groom's family to go ahead with the match. Fifteen days later, the complainant married the accused at a temple, where her father gave some gold, silver and household items. After the complainant began living in the marital home, her husband, his parents and his sister allegedly began harassing her, saying she did not bring enough dowry. They also made cruel remarks about her appearance. The complainant had a baby girl a year into the marriage. Her in-laws allegedly taunted her about not having a boy. Her husband also expressed doubts that the girl was his. The complainant was also allegedly assaulted several times. Fed up with the harassment and violence, the woman returned to her father's house in 2022. She later contacted her husband, but he refused to accept her and their daughter. Meanwhile, the complainant learned that her husband had married another woman and had a baby boy in Aug 2025 at a private hospital in Kadodara town. The complainant filed an RTI application with the Kadodara municipality to know the name of the father of the newborn boy. The municipality replied with the birth registration details, showing that the father was the victim's husband. The woman then filed a complaint for domestic violence, bigamy and criminal intimidation under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 85, 82(1), 351(3), 352, 54 and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.