A local court has ordered the Samajwadi Party MP from Akbarpur, Shankh Laal Manjhi, to pay maintenance to his first wife Durgawati, who claimed that the MP had deserted her and her son. She had filed a case against Manjhi in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ambedkarnagar in April 2006, alleging that he had married another woman.In an interim order earlier this week, the court ordered Manjhi to pay Rs 9,000 to Durgawati as immediate relief and Rs 1,000 per month as maintenance until the case was disposed of.The MP has paid Rs 9,000 in the local treasury, said S P Mishra, advocate of the complainant.Manjhi, however, said he had submitted before the court that Durgawati was not his wife and had lodged the case to harass him.In her complaint, Drugawati said she had married Manjhi 30 years ago and had a son, Bharat Lal, from him. The complaint also said five years after the marriage, Manjhi went to Mumbai for some business and developed relations with another woman. In 1985, Manjhi married one Sakuli, leaving Durgawati and Lal at his ancestral village Muflispur in Santkabeernagar.
