Bigamist who bashed, strangled second wife ends up with prison sentence

A Hamilton man who choked and beat his wife has also been convicted of a rare charge of bigamy - the crime of being married to more than one person at once.

Ravi Bhushan, 35, appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday, after earlier admitting charges of bigamy, assault with intent to injure and two counts of strangulation.

It was a combination that landed him with 25 months in prison.

As the summary of facts on his case reveals, Bhushan, who now lives in Henderson, arrived in New Zealand in 2012, on a student visa, and in May 2014 he got married to a woman at a registry office.

However, in January 2016 he began advertising for a bride in a newspaper that circulated among this country’s Indian community.

A prospective bride, who was also in New Zealand on a student visa, responded to the ad. The pair became engaged and, in December 2016, he and his betrothed travelled to their home country, where a traditional marriage ceremony was held in a Sikh temple in the city of Phagwara, in northern India.

He never told his new wife he was already a married man. Bhushan remained married to both of his wives until December the following year, when he officially divorced his first wife in the Tauranga Family Court.

At sentencing, his counsel Martin Dillon said Bhushan had been compelled to get married to his second wife because relationships of “boyfriend and girlfriend” were frowned upon in his culture.

“It was not a situation where he was carrying on in an ongoing committed relationship with two wives at the same time.”

The assault and strangulation charges involved two incidents of domestic violence that happened on December 14 last year, as well as an earlier incident in June 2021.

That earlier incident involved a verbal argument that escalated when Bhushan wrapped a belt around the victim’s throat and tightened it until her breathing became shallow. She managed to scratch his face and he released her.

The December incident involved an argument regarding an evening meal, during which Bhushan became angry and punched his victim in her lower back four times. As she screamed for help, he grabbed and pushed her against a wall, holding her against it by her throat with one hand.

With his other hand he covered her nose and mouth, letting go only when she began struggling to breathe.

The sentencing was a two-part sentencing. It had to be adjourned from earlier this month due to a discrepancy in the police summary of facts on the case.

That discrepancy concerned a miscarriage Bhushan’s second wife suffered 16 days after he punched her in the back - which was the basis of the assault charge.

However, although the summary implied the miscarriage was caused by the assault, Bhushan had asserted this was not the case, and the foetus had died some six weeks prior.

As Dillon told the court, the summary did not attribute causation of the miscarriage, however “it would be unfair to infer causation between those two things”.

The sentencing was continued on Wednesday, with the provision of an amended police summary to the court, in which that suggestion was withdrawn.

Dillon claimed the abuse in the home “was not all one-sided”, but Bhushan did otherwise accept the summary of facts.

Bhushan had come to court armed with a letter of remorse, a cultural report, and a form certifying he had completed an anger management course.

He also had a form from the police in India confirming he had not come to their attention for any reason in that country.

Bigamy – the offence of marrying someone while already legally married to another person – is rarely prosecuted in New Zealand, and there have been even fewer convictions.

In March last year Wellington man Bruce Reid, 50, was sentenced to five months and one week of home detention, after admitting bigamy and fraud charges.

That case involved him being married to two women at once and using a nomde-plume under which he married his second wife and falsely obtained a $60,000 Porsche Boxster.

The charge comes with a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Given that Bhushan has spent eight months in custody on remand, he will very soon be eligible for release on the basis of time served.