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| Amit Goyal told a judge his wife Ankita had actually married another man named Amit Goyal in 2003 |
Former city banker Amit Goyal, 36 told a London court his wife, Ankita, had married “another Amit Goyal” in India.
He also claimed he couldn’t have possibly been there since he was actually at home at the time the marriage took place.
The couple were married at the Hotel Samrat Heavens, in the Indian city of Meerut, in 2003.
But yesterday a judge ruled his marriage was indeed valid.
The ex-UBS employee claimed his wife couldn’t divorce him or claim any financial support since they were never actually married, despite the couple living together in the city and having a six-year-old daughter.
His claims were dismissed as unreliable at a court hearing last year with Judge Mark Everall ruling “there was a valid marriage”.
But the banker argued a mysterious thumb print on the marriage certificate and the fact there were no wedding photos proved he was actually single, The Independent reported.
The couple, who met on Indian dating website Shaadi.com, were engaged after just three days and married soon after with the blessing of Mrs Goyal’s father.
The banker, who was working in London at the time, had just been accepted into an elite business school in Paris but reportedly agreed to fly back to India to marry Ankita to help speed up her application for a French visa.
But Mr Goyal told the court he wasn’t in India when the vows were made and his marriage celebrated three days later was invalid, even though the name on the wedding certificate matched his own.
The couple moved to Paris shortly after the wedding and settled back in London before their relationship broke down in 2011.
Lord Justice Kitchi told the Court of Appeal he agreed with Judge Everall’s earlier findings and agreed the couple’s marriage was valid.
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