New Delhi: Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was on Wednesday granted divorce by a family court on grounds that his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji subjected him to mental cruelty.
As Aesha did not contest the accusation or defend herself, Judge Harish Kumar accepted all the allegations made by Dhawan in his divorce petition. The judge held that the wife subjected cricketer to mental agony by compelling him to live separately from his only son.
The court did not pass any order on permanent custody of the couple's son but granted visitation rights to Dhawan to meet his son for the appropriate duration in India and Australia and also to chat with him over video call.
The court ordered Aesha to bring the child to India for visitation purposes including an overnight stay with Dhawan and his family, at least for half the period of school vacation during an academic calendar.
Though Aesha agreed to stay with Dhawan in India initially, she failed to do so owing to a commitment to her ex-husband with whom she has two daughters. She had committed to her ex-husband not to leave Australia where she presently lives with her two daughters and a son from Dhawan.
The court also considered Dhawan's argument that his wife compelled him to make her 99 per cent owner of three properties he owned in Australia.
Currently out of the national reckoning, Dhawan, the 37-year-old left-handed batter, plays in the Indian Premier League.