Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has finally been granted divorce from his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji after a ruling from Delhi’s Patiala court on grounds of cruelty. Their divorce application had been pending in the court for sometime and the two had been living separately. Dhawan had married Aesha Mukerji in 2012 and the two also have a 7-year-old son named Zoravar.
What
- The court ruled in favor of Dhawan citing that he had been subjected to mental agony for years by keeping him away from his son, Zorawar.
- The court said, “ He (Dhawan) for no fault of his own had been through immense agony and anguish of living separately from his own son for years,” the court remarked in part of the judgement.
- The court also accepted that Dhawan’s wife couldn’t stay in India due to her commitment towards her daughters in Australia who are from her first marriage.
- As Dhawan’s testimony remain unchallenged, the judge said, “ Hence, it stands proved that wife backtracked from her assurance of setting up matrimonial home after marriage and thus, made him suffer a long distance marriage and suffer immense agony and anguish of living separately from his son, for years.”
Why
- Though neither of them has opened up on the case, Dhawan had said a few months back that he would blame himself for his failed marriage. “I failed because the final decision is the person’s own. I don’t point fingers at others,” he had said.
- Reports also said that when Dhawan lost his place in the national side after a series of mediocre performances, relationship between the two took an ugly turn.
- It was said that Aesha had circulated defamatory messages against Dhawan to his IPL franchise, Delhi Capitals CEO Dheeraj Malhotra.
- Dhawan had also reportedly filed a plea in the Delhi’s Patiala court for tarnishing his reputation, and also threatening to ruin his career.
- Aesha is 10 years older to Dhawan and she entered into a second marriage with Dhawan after separating from her businessman husband in Australia.
- Dhawan also contended that if he would marry again, he would give a profound though over his decision and would not marry in haste. He also passed this advice to the younger generation who wanted to enter marriage.
The bigger picture
- Shikhar Dhawan is on the last leg of his career.
- The 37-year-old cricketer has lost his place in the national side and was even ignored for the World Cup squad.
- The last time he played an ODI for India was against Bangladesh in June 2022, in a three match ODI series.
- Since then, he has not been selected in any squad.
- However, Dhawan still has 2-3 years of domestic cricket left in him and he is a skipper of IPL team, Punjab Kings.
- In 2023 also, he had a fine season with the bat, as he smashed 373 runs in 11 games at a strike rate of 142.91.
