Day before wedding, Mumbai man tells fiancee he's been married for 5 yrs

They say you get the seven-year-itch in a marriage, and a married man in the city broke off his relationship with a woman.

The man even posted on Facebook that he got married, but told the complainant that it was not true. Representation pic/thinkstock

Only, she wasn't his wife, but his girlfriend whom he was going to marry this month while already being married. The woman complained to the Kurla police and got him arrested for lying about his marital situation.

Real estate agent Suyog Ashtekar (31) had been dating the woman for nearly seven years. Ashtekar was to get married to the 28-year-old on May 1.

But a day before the wedding, he emailed his fiancee, revealing that he was already wedded to someone else. According to the Kurla police, the Mulund resident first came into contact with the woman in 2004, at the time when she was studying in Hinduja College.

Police Inspector Sarjeerao Jagdale of Kurla police station said, "Ashtekar contacted her by continuously calling her, and the two ended up becoming friends. Later, in 2008, they started dating and the accused told her that he'd marry her."

Broken promises
Ashtekar got married to another woman in 2009 but didn't inform his girlfriend about it. He even had the gall to update his relationship status on Facebook. "Ashtekar posted that he was ‘married to someone' on Facebook.

When the victim confronted the accused about it, he lied to her and convinced her he wasn't," said Jagdale. He later deleted the post, and insisted that he would only marry her. Their parents met to discuss the marriage. But none of the Ashtekars told the woman about their son's marriage. Instead, they rejected her.

Ashtekar still maintained he would marry the woman against his parents' wishes. Preparations began, the woman's family booked a wedding hall, shopped, and even distributed wedding cards. The family spent R4.5 lakh on making these arrangements.

To her shock, the woman received an email from her fiancee, saying, "We have been very good friends and I am willing to settle down in life. But I am already married and cannot marry you till I legally leave my wife."

The woman then went to the Kurla police and lodged an FIR on May 5. Ashtekar was arrested the next day and booked under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC. He is currently in police custody.