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Sanjay Singh is still married to Garima: SC

The Supreme Court has held as illegal the divorce between newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sanjay Singh and his first wife Garima, upholding an Allahabad high court verdict that it was obtained by 'fraud and collusion'.

The divorce was granted by a trial court in 1995, following which Garima filed a suit before a civil judge in Sitapur district for declaration that the decree was null and void. She said her husband had filed a civil suit against her for getting the divorce, and it was was hurriedly disposed off by an ex-parte decree dated March 27, 1995. Thereafter, Singh married Ameeta Modi, widow of national badminton champion Syed Modi, who was murdered in Lucknow in 1988, she said.

Singh was one of the accused in the Modi murder case. He was acquitted by the Supreme Court.

Garima's suit, however, was dismissed. Subsequently, in a revision before the high court, she succeeded. Whereupon Singh had gone to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court agreed with the contention of senior counsel R K Jain, appearing for Garima, that on well established facts emerging from the records of the case, no other conclusion was possible except the one that the ex-parte decree was obtained by committing a fraud on the court.

The counsel submitted there would be no justification for the apex court to interfere with the findings of the high court.

Singh's marriage to Garima took place on December 14, 1973. They have three children -- two daughters and a son.

UNI

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