A family court in Delhi on Wednesday granted divorce to cricketer Shikhar Dhawan from his estranged wife Ayesha Mukherjee. Judge Harish Kumar accepted all allegations made by Dhawan in his divorce petition against his wife on the ground that wife Ayesha Mukherjee had failed to defend herself. The judge said that Ayesha caused Dhawan mental anguish by forcing him to live separately from his only child for years.
Why did Shikhar Dhawan marry the mother of two children? Gabbar’s wife was 10 years older!
While refusing to make any order regarding permanent custody of the couple’s son, the court granted Dhawan the right to visit his son in India and Australia for a reasonable period of time and to chat with him on video calls. The court further ordered Aisha to bring the child to India for visitation, including staying with Dhawan and his family members for half of the school holidays during the academic calendar. According to Dhawan’s petition, the wife had initially said that she would stay with him in India. However, she failed to do so due to her commitment to her ex-husband. Ayesha has two daughters before.
“Through no fault of his own, he (Dhawan) has been suffering immense agony and anguish of being separated from his son for years. Though the wife denies the allegations, she wants to live with him in India. Due to her commitment to her daughters from her previous marriage, she has to stay in Australia, she said. could not come to live in India and was well aware of her commitment, yet she did not decide to contest the claim,” the judge noted.
The court further considered Dhawan’s contention that his wife forced him to own 99 per cent of three properties purchased in Australia using her own money. She had forced him to become joint owner in two other properties, the court noted. Ayesha failed to contest this claim as well and hence the judge passed the judgment accepting Dhawan’s allegations.