Businessman asked to pay Rs 12,000 maintenance to wife, son

New Delhi: A businessman has been ordered by a Delhi court to pay Rs 12,000 a month to his estranged wife and minor son as maintenance with the judge also ticking him off for trying to conceal his income.

The court directed the city businessman to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 8,000 to his wife and Rs 4,000 to his two-year-old son saying it is a "tendency of the privately employed people not to disclose their true income in the proceedings for maintenance." Considering the financial status of the man, who owns several properties and runs various business, the court said the husband is a "man of means" and the income of his joint family would be "at least in lakhs". "I am prima facie satisfied that the husband is a man of means. The status of the parties is apparent from the fact that an Esteem car was given in the marriage, solemnised in January 2007," Metropolitan Magistrate Savitri said. The court also noted that an FIR has been registered against the man in the dowry case. "Accordingly, I am prima facie satisfied that petitioner wife is justified to live separately from the respondent husband," the magistrate said. The woman had sought maintenance saying he owns two houses and one shop in Haryana where he was running business of printing, property dealing and construction, earning lakhs of rupees per month. The man, however, said the construction business was not owned by him only and it was a family-run establishment and he was employed as a clerk with a building material store here, earning Rs 6,000 per month. The court rejected his claim. PTI