Dirty Laundry.....hmmm

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Laundry list of accusations mentioned in the guardianship petition includes lying about her divorce with actor Sanjay Dutt, adultery and not caring enough for their daughter.

Tennis ace Leander Paes on Saturday filed a petition at the Bandra family court seeking custody of his eight-year-old daughter, saying he was concerned for her "safety, welfare and wellbeing."

While it was known since last May that his relationship with Rhea Pillai had completely broken down, the true shocker is the laundry list of accusations against Pillai in the petition.

Leander has cited Rhea's "irresponsible behaviour, lack of personal maternal supervision, self-indulgence, volatile temper, bohemian attitude and creating insecurity in the mind of the child" as reasons detrimental to her "healthy upbringing."

Holding back no punches, Leander has also alleged that Pillai was in a relationship with a 26-yearold domestic cricketer and it was his extremely discomfited daughter who brought this to his notice.

There could be a reason the petition - filed via his lawyers George Cheriyan, Mridula Kadam and Zulfiquar Memon of MZM legal - goes into all the gory details.

In case of live-in relationships, Indian law gives first right of custody to the mother. If a father wants custody, the onus of proving beyond reasonable doubt that being with the mother would be detrimental to the child's welfare rests on him.

According to the petition, Rhea was married to Sanjay Dutt, her second husband, when she met Leander on a Goa flight in November 2003. The two got talking about her interest in Art of Living. Soon, the two started meeting frequently and became close friends. The petition alleged that Rhea told Leander in January 2005 that she was divorced from Dutt, following which the two got together. They had a daughter in April 2006.

The petition said Rhea had lied about her divorce from Dutt, and that it only came through in February 2008. Leander also said Rhea and him never married "as she did not believe in the institution of marriage thanks to her two failed marriages."

In contrast to this all-out attack on Rhea, the petition paints a picture of Leander as the doting father to the T. Leander said he shifted to the Taj Wellington Mews Apartments in Colaba on a rent of Rs 4 lakh per month when Rhea was pregnant so their child could get the best environment and that he was even present at Breach Candy hospital for his daughter's birth.

He said there have been days when he represented the country in the Davis Cup in the morning and spent the nights with Rhea and their daughter. The petition said the couple has not known any intimacy in the last eight years, despite which Leander tried to maintain cordial relations for their daughter's sake.

The petition also tried to contrast Leander's approach to parenting with Rhea's. Thus, it claimed, while Leander always ensured he dropped his daughter to school, fed her and put her to bed, Rhea was indifferent towards her.

"On most occasions even though the respondent is not otherwise engaged in any work, she sends the maid servants to pick the child from the school," said the petition.

It also took a jab at the satsangs Rhea hosted in their house. "The apartment was used as a public facility and under the garb of teaching and preaching spirituality, the sacred tenets of the student-teacher relationship were violated by the respondent," it said. "More importantly, the parental duty to my daughter was defiled, as all sorts of people were walking in and out of the home."

The most stinging charges in the petition, however, are about Rhea's alleged affair. It said that some time towards the end of 2012 it was their daughter who informed Leander that Rhea had a close male friend.

According to the petition, his daughter told Leander she was not comfortable around this person owing to his intimacy with Rhea. The petition said when Leander confronted Rhea, she denied this while accepting that she no longer loved him. Leander said there was total breakdown in their ties after this incident, following which the two started living in separate bedrooms.

Around this time, Rhea also tried to distance their daughter from Leander, the petition alleged.

Further, it said Rhea lodged complaints with the housing society and the Bandra police station that Paes was trying to oust her and their daughter from their house. It said she also started maligning Leander's image in their friends circle in an attempt to gain sympathy. Crucially, the petition alleges that Rhea admitted to having done it based on legal advice and from the experience of her two earlier marriages.

The petition ends by saying that earlier this year, Leader agreed to discuss parting ways and amicably settling issues, including their daughter's custody and upbringing.

It alleged that it was soon clear that Rhea was in no mood for an amicable settlement and that her sole objective was to extort money in the guise of it being for their daughter's benefit, forcing Leander to move court.

When Mirror contacted Paes he said, "It is an extremely personal matter and I would appreciate if you let it be like that. All I am doing is protecting my daughter's interest."

While admitting that the petition has been filed, Advocate Memon, too, declined to comment saying the matter was of an "extremely sensitive nature."

Matrimonial lawyer Mrunalini Deshmukh, who is representing Rhea, said she was aware that Leander has filed a guardianship petition seeking his daughter's custody.

"We have not been served a copy yet," she said. "However, the position of the law in such matters is very clear."

When informed about the nature of the allegations, Deshmukh denied them and said there was no merit in them.

Paes and Pillai in this file photo. AFP