MId-Day

Mumbai, Apr 4: The police arrested Nalasopara resident V H Laxman Rao yesterday, for bigamy and cheating.

Laxman allegedly held his wife Anjali (name changed to protect her identity) hostage in their home and physically abused her after she discovered his shady past. He even blackmailed her with their honeymoon videos, saying he would upload them on the Internet.

Three months into their marriage, Anjali discovered that she was Laxman’s third wife. Afraid she would go to court, Laxman, a sailor with the merchant navy, began blackmailing and abusing her.

In mid-March, Anjali accidentally took a call from his second wife Priya (name changed), who wanted a divorce. His first wife has passed away.

From then on, Anjali began to ask Laxman to tell her most about his past. But he allegedly locked her up in their home in Evershine City and beat her. But Anjali braved her back and knee injuries to lodge a complaint with the Vasai police after Laxman threatened to make their honeymoon videos public.

Anjali said, “After our wedding, he suddenly became very possessive and would not let me talk to anyone. He never allowed me to travel by bus or share an autorickshaw with anyone.”

She claimed she had to hire seven maids in two months. “All of them left because my husband would try to molest them. I came to know about this after he tried to misbehave with a friend of mine,” she alleged.

Laxman had never introduced Anjali to his family. “Ours was a love marriage, but he kept me in the dark about his past. He was not even in touch with his mother, who lives in Bangalore,” she said.