Man complains against wife for taking benefit of Govt scheme for first-born child twice

Shyam Prasad

Bengaluru:  In a rather strange set of circumstances, the High Court of Karnataka was faced with a petition in which a husband has complained against his wife for taking advantage of a government scheme. Four people, Gopal Shetti, his wife Veena, Rajesh Shetti and his wife Geeta approached the HC for bail. All are from Yellapur in Uttara Kananda district.

They are all facing charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case being investigated by the Yallapur police. In November 2021, Mallikarjun Shirasangi, husband of the main accused Swati aka Vanishree, filed a complaint with the Yallapur police that his wife had earlier delivered a baby boy in Yallapur Government Hospital on August 28, 2019 and she had obtained the benefits from the government under the Matra Vandana Scheme.

The scheme is for the first-born child of women. The husband, however, claimed that his wife was married to another person earlier and had a child in 2014 itself, which was actually her first child. She had allegedly with the help of Gopal Shetti and Veena changed the documents to make it look like her first born child in 2014 was that of Rajesh Shetti and Geeta.

The husband alleged that his wife had “suppressed her first delivery with the intention to get Matra Vandana Scheme benefits from the government and created duplicate documents with regard to the same and stated before the administration of Government Hospital that it was her first delivery and got a birth certificate.”

He complained that his wife “received the benefit under the Matra Vandana Scheme by submitting fictitious documents to the Child Welfare Committee, Yallapur.” Swati was granted anticipatory bail in the case much earlier. The bail plea of the other four accused was heard by Justice Shivashankar Amarannavar recently.

The advocate for the petitioners stated that there was serious misunderstanding between Mallikarjun Shirasangi and his wife Swati and “therefore, in order to harass her, certain bald allegations were being made. Even after 1 year and 3 months, the investigation is not completed.”

The HC granted bail to the four accused stating, “In the facts and circumstances of the case and submission of the counsel, this Court is of the view that there are valid grounds for granting anticipatory bail subject to certain terms and conditions.” The four were ordered to be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each.