HYDERABAD: A 37-year-old woman homoeopath was arrested on Sunday for filing a false dowry complaint against her `husband'. The woman, Chivakula Saritha , a resident of Tarnaka in Secunderabad , had married twice earlier and extracted alimony from her former partners.

Saritha had in June lodged a complaint against her current husband Prakash Rao alleging that he was harassing her and her family for additional dowry . After the complaint, Prakash Rao was arrested.

After three days, Rao was released on bail. Later, on doing a background check on his wife, the victim found that Saritha had earlier married two other persons and filed similar dowry complaints against them too.

“Apart from the victim, another person also approached the police to lodge a complaint against her,“ Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said.The commissioner said it was the first fake dowry case in their jurisdiction.

Earlier in 2005, Saritha had married one K Ramanadha Shankar, a Hubli resident , and filed a dowry case against him. Later, she demanded `6 lakh and 20 tolas of gold as compromise and took divorce from a court in Hubli.

In 2011, she again married, one Venkata Rambabu .After a month, she lodged a dowry harassment complaint against her husband and his family members. She demanded Rs9 lakh from her second husband as a compromise and took divorce from a local court.

“She also had an affair and lodged a complaint that the man had outraged her modesty and demanded money,“ the commissioner ad ded. However, he refused to compromise and gave Rs80,000 to her.

After gathering infor mation about these cases, Rao approached Vanasthalipuram police last month and lodged a cheating case against Saritha. After investigation, police found the allegation levelled by Rao to be true and arrested Saritha.“In such cases, it is hard to find evidence against the culprit. In this case, police managed to find enough evidence (FIRs and marriage certificates). Otherwise, such cases are tricky ,“ Bhagwat added.

