Court summons Mahanta

GUWAHATI, April 18 ? A family court here has issued summons to former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to appear as a witness in connection with a divorce petition filed by an Assembly Secretariat employee, Sanghamitra Bharali, who claimed she had married Mahanta, reports PTI. The principal judge of the court last week also issued summons to Mahanta?s former ministerial colleague, SA Choudhury, and former MP, Keshav Mahanta, for a hearing on the divorce suit filed by Bharali against her husband, Monideep Das. Mahanta and his party colleagues have been asked to appear in the court on May 16. Bharali had in her petition pleaded for a divorce from her husband on the ground of physical cruelty. Bharali?s husband responded to the petition by accusing her of bigamy. A court official said that summons had been sent to each of the witnesses. It was in August, 2001 that Bharali had claimed that she had married Mahanta in a Mumbai temple according to Hindu rites and the then Panchayat and Rural Development Minister, SA Choudhury, was a witness to the ceremony.