Explained: Why court granted divorce to Shikhar Dhawan on grounds of cruelty by wife
A family court in Delhi on Wednesday, October 4 granted divorce to senior Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan from his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji on the grounds of mental cruelty by the latter.
The judge in the case, Harish Kumar, accepted all allegations made by the star opening batter in his divorce petition on the grounds that Aesha either did not contest the allegations or failed to defend herself.
Dhawan and Aesha tied the knot in October 2012. However, after eight years of marriage, the couple decided to part ways due to differences. They have son named Zoravar, who was born in December 2014. Aesha is 12 years older to Dhawan and has two daughters from her previous marriage.
According to a report in Bar and Bench, the judge concluded that Aesha subjected Dhawan to mental agony by forcing the cricketer to live separately from his son Zoravar.
The court did not pass any order on who will get the permanent custody of their child. However, Dhawan was granted visitation rights to meet his son for “appropriate duration in India and Australia and also to chat with him over video call”.
The court also ordered that Aesha must bring their son to India for visitation purpose at least for half the period of the school vacation during academic calendar.
The court order read:
"Since petitioner is a reputed International Cricketer and has been pride of the nation, subject to petitioner approaching the Union Government of India, it is requested to take up the issue of visitation/custody of the minor son with its counterpart in Australia to help him have regular visitation or chatting with his own son or his permanent custody.”
Aesha did not fulfill her commitment to live with Dhawan in India: Court
In his plea, Dhawan claimed that Aesha initially agreed to live with him in India.
However, the latter decided to fulfill her commitment towards her ex-husband with whom she has two daughters. Aesha continues to live in Australia with her two daughters and a son from Dhawan.
Since the cricketer’s estranged wife did not challenge Dhawan’s testimony, the court backed the Indian opener’s version of events.
The judge observed:
"Hence, it stands proved that the wife backtracked from her assurance of setting up matrimonial home in India after marriage and thus made him suffer a long distance marriage and suffer immense agony and anguish of living separately from his own son for years."
The Court also considered Dhawan's statement over Aesha forcing him to make her owner in his properties as true.
The 37-year-old alleged that Aesha compelled him to make her the owner of 99 percent of three properties that he had purchased in Australia with his own money.
"Thus, in the absence of any of probable defense, Dhawan's allegation that she compelled him to make her owner to some extent in all three properties or that she pocketed sale proceeds thereof to the extent pleaded and testified to by him has got to be believed as true," the judge’s ruling on the matter read.
Aesha sent defamatory messages to humiliate Dhawan: Court
Another claim of Dhawan that the court accepted was of Aesha sending defamatory messages to a number of authorities in the Board of Control for Cricket in India as well as some owners of Indian Premiere League (IPL) teams apart from some cricketers.
Aesha claimed that she sent messages to only three people and alleged that she did so because she wanted to get monthly maintenance on time which, she claimed, Dhawan had been delaying. The judge, however, concluded that the cricketer’s estranged wife sent defamatory messages to multiple people to “pressurize, defame and humiliate Dhawan”.
The court also backed Dhawan over allegations leveled by the batter that Aesha fought with him since he took time out to take his ailing father to a hospital when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
One of India’s most successful opening batters in ODI cricket, Dhawan has represented India in 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is, scoring 2315, 6793 and 1759 runs respectively.
He was dropped from the national side after a poor one-day tour of Bangladesh towards the end of 2012. The left-handed batter captained Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL earlier this year.