CMRL chief deserts injured wife, court asks him to pay maintenance

An additional chief judicial magistrate, Ghaziabad, while issuing an order on the dispute over payment of maintenance to Moni Bansal by her estranged husband Pankaj Kumar Bansal, asked the Chennai Metro Rail chief to pay Rs 1.8 lakh immediately and posted the case for further hearing on January 4.

According to Moni’s father, the official had deserted her after she suffered injuries while taking part in an adventure sport in 2014. The incident left her partly paralysed and bed-ridden, her father said, adding that the couple’s 16-year-old daughter was also living with him.

In the complaint she filed alleging domestic violence, Moni Bansal (42) said she got married to Pankaj Kumar Bansal, an IAS official of the Tamil Nadu cadre, on December 6, 1998, in Meerut.

But after her injury in Shimla in October, 2014, her husband left her at her parent’s home in Ghaziabad and has since been ignoring her. With no other option left, Moni said that she filed a domestic violence complaint and a petition for maintenance in the family court.