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AHMEDABAD: An employee of city-based leading pharma company was sent to jail for 480 days after he refused to pay the pending Rs 1.20 lakh maintenance amount to his estranged wife under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.

The chief judicial magistrate at the Mirzapur rural court ordered jail term for Thaltej area resident Naresh Rajane (29) for his 16-month default in paying Rs 7,500 maintenance on an interim order passed in 2018.

Sixteen months passed since the court order, but Rajane did not pay the amount. The wife filed another application through advocate Salim Saiyed for recovery of the pending amount, Rs 1.20 lakh. The court summoned him on Monday and asked for reasons for non-payment. He replied that he would not be able to pay his wife in near future and that he did not pay because he could not arrange for finances.

The court found that Rajane's reply was not reasonable and satisfactory. "Even today also, he is not ready to pay. There is no point in granting more time to him because it will be an injustice to the applicant wife and it will also defeat the purpose of the law," the court observed and punished the man with 480 days' jail by counting 30-day jail for each month's default.

