What is the Leander Paes and Rhea Pillai domestic violence case?
Eight years after Rhea Pillai filed a domestic violence case against tennis superstar Leander Paes, the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate Court has ordered Paes to pay monthly rent of Rs 50,000 and a monthly maintenance of Rs 1 lakh to former partner Rhea Pillai henceforth. It has also asked Rhea Pillai to vacate Paes’s rented home in Bandra, Mumbai. The court marked that if Rhea stays at the rented house, she won’t be entitled to the monthly expenses.
The court has also ordered Paes to pay Rs 1 lakh additional amount for the legal expenses of Pillai. He would also have to continue paying the maintenance, education and other necessities of their daughter, Aiyana.
WHAT WAS THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASE?
The domestic violence case was filed in 2014 by Rhea Pillai at Local Metropolitan Magistrate Court when she alleged allegations of domestic violence against Paes and his father. She had alleged that Paes not only refrained from fulfilling his duties as a father, but also as a husband.
Rhea had said that they both got married in 2006, and since 2013, differences started between the two. She said that Paes would stay at home for only 20 days in a year while rest of the months he would also stay out of the country. She had labelled accusations of domestic and economic violence against Paes in 2014. In that, she said that she had to bear the educational and maintenance expenses of their daughter Aiyana alone. For that she also said, she borrowed money from her friends.
On the other hand, Paes had filed a case in court seeking the custody of their daughter. He had alleged that Rhea never wanted a child, and that she, at one point, even told him about a having late pregnancy. In 2016, Aiyana was diagnosed with a brain tumour. In 2017, it was reported that Paes had been paying Rhea a monthly expenditure of Rs 1.5 lakh. But Rhea said that she had demanded Rs 2.62 lakh for herself and their daughter.
Paes, at one point, also said he was never married to Rhea Pillai. To counter this, Rhea had legally asked for his passport, in which she had said that under the 'spouse' section, her name was written.
Rhea had also accused Peas and his mother of breaking into her house in Bandra once when she was out of town. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, she said, “Leader and his mother were running out of the building as I was entering. They even put my clothes in boxes and threw them out.”
She also spoke of another instance when she said 5 men had broken ino her house and taken away her sensitive email info and her photographs.
Leander, on the other hand, had accused Rhea of being wild and having a violent temper.