Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was granted divorce from his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji on grounds of “cruelty” by a Delhi court on Wednesday. The court observed that Dhawan, 37, went through “immense agony” as it accepted all the allegations made by the cricketer in his divorce petition.
Judge Harish Kumar held that Mukerji subjected Dhawan to mental agony by forcing him to live separately from his only son for years, according to Bar and Bench.
Shikhar Dhawan and Aesha Mukerji were married in 2012. They have a 10-year-old son named Zoraver Dhawan. Mukerji also has two daughters from her previous marriage. Both Aesha Mukerji and Zoraver are Australian citizens.
In his petition, Dhawan claimed that his wife had promised to move from Australia to India to live with him. Because of his career as a national-level cricketer, he was unable to move to Australia. However, Mukerji later refused to move to India, saying that doing so would force her to give up custody of her two daughters to her ex-husband.
"He (Dhawan) for no fault of his own had been through immense agony and anguish of living separately from his own son for years. Even though the wife denied the allegation, submitting that though she genuinely wanted to live in India with him, however due to her commitment towards her daughters from her previous marriage requiring her to stay in Australia, she could not come to live in India and that he was well aware of her commitment, yet she did not choose to contest the claim," the judge noted.
"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 judge added.
The Delhi Family Court also accepted Dhawan’s claim that his wife compelled him to make her the 99 percent owner of three properties he bought in Australia. As Mukerji failed to contest this claim too, the court accepted it and said that “she pocketed sale proceeds thereof to the extent pleaded and testified to by him has got to be believed as true.”
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