Celina Jaitly’s lawyer opens up on her domestic abuse case: 'She had to escape and run to India with nothing…'

Celina Jaitly has recently filed a domestic violence complaint against her husband, Austrian entrepreneur Peter Haag, alleging emotional and verbal cruelty, physical violence, manipulation, coercion, and financial control, as confirmed by her lawyer. This filing is part of a series of ongoing legal matters for Jaitly, which include seeking assistance for her brother, who is reportedly "illegally detained" in the UAE, a civil litigation in Mumbai concerning her property, and a divorce case initiated by Peter Haag in Austria.

Celina Jaitly’s lawyer shares her primary concern

Celina Jaitly's lawyer, Niharika Karanjawala, expressed to News18 that her primary concern is the custody of Celina's children. "She's fighting it out in the case going on in the Austrian court. Her children are her foremost concern. We've asked for the custody of her children and access to them in the domestic case too. Fortunately, two days back, the Austrian court, in the divorce proceedings, has allowed her access to them for one hour a day, telephonically," she says.

"She's able to communicate with them daily. Prior to this, Peter had cut off contact for a while between her and the children," Niharika adds. And is there a matter of infidelity involved? "While there's no infidelity that she knows of during the marriage, she did hear from his sister shortly after the first set of twins were born. She heard that though he had portrayed himself to be single at the time they were dating, he was actually in a live-in relationship with another lady," she remarks.

She calls the marriage abusive

"The marriage has been abusive from the beginning. But since 2017, especially, three things happened that drove Celina into a rather deep depression. She was pregnant with her second set of twins at that time. Her father passed away in her fifth month of pregnancy. The day her twins were born, one of them passed away due to hypoplastic left heart dysplasia. About five months thereafter, her mother passed away from a galloping form of cancer," Niharika says.

Revealing the main reason behind the conflict

According to Celina Jaitly's lawyer, finances were a significant source of conflict between Celina and Peter. "He made her give him all her credit and debit cards so that he was in-charge financially. He was using all of her savings to fund their life. She couldn't ask him about his salaries from his jobs because he would fly into a rage. When they got into a conversation, she learnt that he had sold off the property they bought together in Vienna last year without informing her. He kept telling her that there's no money and they got into a fight," she says. Peter, who hasn't been employed for several years, allegedly manipulated Celina into transferring rental income from her Mumbai property to his account. Initially, they lived together in Mumbai, then moved to Dubai for his job, followed by Singapore, where he lost his job. They later relocated to a small alpine village in Austria, where, according to the lawyer, he isolated her.

Niharika further adds, "At this point, she had nobody. Her parents had passed away and her children were young. She barely spoke the language there. And it became very difficult for her to do anything without him." She goes on to reveal, "Peter kept all of her documentation and passport with him. One day, while looking for a quiet place to speak to her lawyer, Celina found the place where he had hidden the documents. Thereafter, with the help of a neighbour, she rushed back to India and moved the courts here for justice."

About Celina and Peter

According to Niharika, Celina had returned to India a few times in recent years, but Peter always convinced her to return to Austria. Celina had even sought advice from an Austrian lawyer regarding her options for leaving the marriage. She arrived in India in the second week of October and consulted with lawyers at Karanjawala & Co in early November.