The Orissa High Court on Thursday granted divorce to BJD MP and Odia actor Anubhav Mohanty from his wife Varsha Priyadarshini.
A division bench of the high court comprising justices Arindam Sinha and Sibo Sankar Mishra also quashed an earlier ruling of a local family court, which in September this year had rejected Mohanty's appeal for divorce.
"The division bench clearly established that the petitioner, Anubhav Mohanty, was treated with cruelty by his spouse as she was afraid of intimacy after the solemnisation of the marriage in 2014.
"On this ground, the high court declared the marriage to be dissolved by a decree of divorce under Section 13(1)(IB) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955," Mohanty's counsel Lalitendu Mishra said after the judgment was pronounced.
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Mohanty had filed a divorce lawsuit before a New Delhi court in 2019, which was transferred to the Cuttack family court in 2020 by the Supreme Court on a plea made by Priyadarshini.
In the meantime, both filed several complaints and suits against each other with local police stations and magisterial courts. Both had also utilised social media platforms to sling mud at each other.
The high court in May 2022 had to step in and restrain the estranged couple from engaging in ugly spats on social media.
They were asked to stop posting and uploading any video on social media against each other relating to their disturbed married life.
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However, in September this year, the family court rejected Mohanty's divorce plea, following which, the BJD MP approached the high court.
