24 June,2017 08:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Suraj Ojha
After five years of marriage, Dadar-based woman discovered husband who went missing after taking crores from her had only married her for money, which he spent on a lavish life for his other family
Bharat Ugale
When her husband went missing after taking crores of rupees from her, a Dadar-based woman was determined to track him down. However, while she was successful in finding him, what she did not expect was to find his first wife and child that he had hidden from her for five years. To add insult to injury, the woman learnt that he had married her for her wealth and was supporting his other family on her money.
She wasted no time in filing a police complaint, after which her gold-digger husband was arrested. The accused, Bharat Ugale (38), is a Dombivli-based share trader. He met the victim in 2012, when he joined a spoken English class, where she was teaching.
"In 2012, Ugale had joined a class in Dadar where the victim was his English teacher. Ugale found out that she was a rich divorcee and decided to trap her," said an officer from the Shivaji Park police station.
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Unbeknownst to the victim, Ugale was already married, but he was never successful enough to give a comfortable life to his wife and kid. On the other hand, the victim was well off, living on a Rs 1.6 crore settlement from her divorce. Dreaming of a luxurious life, Ugale began to woo the victim.
Within a few months, he had persuaded her for marriage. The victim's family did not approve of the match, however, so they got hitched in a court ceremony. In the five years that followed, Ugale asked her for large sums of money on several occasions - sometimes it was Rs 60 lakh for his grandfather's treatment, another time it was Rs 40 lakh for his sister's wedding.
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He would use this money to support his first wife and their daughter, splitting his time between both wives. He even bought his other family an apartment in Virar with the money he got from his second wife.
Caught in his lies
The victim's suspicion was raised when she saw a picture of a woman and child on his phone. When she asked him who they were, he said it was his sister and her child. This only confused the victim further, as she had only recently paid for the same sister's wedding. By this point, he had already gobbled up as much as R2.5 crore of her wealth in cash and jewellery.
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Two months ago, Ugale left the house, telling her that he was going out of station for some work. In fact, he had gone to his first wife's home. When Ugale didn't return a month later and even his phone was unreachable, the victim filed a missing complaint with the police.
Facebooked
At the same time, she began to investigate on Facebook, where she found yet more pictures of him and his 'sister'. Except, this time, his friends had posted comments like "Cute couple".
She pointed this out to the police, who contacted Ugale's friends and managed to get his Virar address. When the cops turned up there, Ugale wasn't home, but they did find out about his other family. On learning the truth, the victim promptly lodged an FIR under Sections 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 469, 471, 376, 377 of the IPC on May 31. Ugale rushed to court to seek anticipatory bail, but his plea was rejected and he was arrested as soon as he exited from the courthouse.
