Indian banker claims he wasn’t present at his wedding

LONDON: A British court has rejected a 36-year-old London-based Indian banker's claim that his wife was not entitled to divorce him or claim any financial support as an imposter had stood for him at their wedding.

Amit Goyal told London's Court of Appeal he was "relaxing at home" in September 2003 while his wife, Ankita, actually got married to his namesake at a Meerut four-star hotel.

The banker argued there was no case for divorce as they were never married. Judge Mark Everall described Goyal an "unreliable" witness and ruled the marriage legal and valid.

Goyal, who lost his job recently and has a £300,000 (over Rs three crore) debt, earlier tried to back his claim by producing a mysterious thumbprint on his marriage certificate. He even cited his absence in his wedding photos to prove he was not present at the ceremony.

The banker met Ankita on an Indian matrimonial site before moving to the UK. The couple has a six-year-old daughter. Their relationship "irretrievably broke down" when Ankita moved out of the family home in 2011.