Leander Paes slams Rhea Pillai as non-caring mother in custody battle

Indian tennis star, Leander Paes has approached the Mumbai Police with a criminal complaint against his live-in partner Rhea Pillai and also filed a guardianship petition in the Bandra family court seeking custody of his daughter, according to news reports. According to DNA, “Paes met Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria on Frida and submitted an application to Maria complaining that his daughter was in danger and that Pillai might forcibly take her out of the country.” The report adds that the police has launched a further investigation. [caption id=“attachment_1507803” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Paes and Pillai in this file photo. AFP[/caption] While details of the police complaint are not known, details from the guardianship petition have been reported in great length by Mumbai Mirror and Times of India. Paes and Pillai have been in a live-in relationship and had a daughter in 2006. According to Mumbai Mirror, Paes’ guardianship petition slams Rhea for being an irresponsible mother, not caring enough for their child and for being self-indulgent while contrasting Paes as a loving, caring father. The report says, “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.”   The report adds that the reason that the petition goes into so much detail against Rhea is that in case of live-in, the law tends to come out in support of the mother. The petition also says Rhea also lied about her divorce to Sanjay Dutt to Leander and that it only came through in February 2008, when he had been led to believe in 2006 that Rhea was already divorced. According to an earlier piece in The Telegraph, which was published in 2008, it was reported that Dutt was paying Rhea’s mobile and shopping bills till the divorce was finalised, even though she had had a baby with Leander. Adultery is also listed as cause for the estranged relations, and according to the petition Rhea had been cheating on Paes and that he only found out about it in 2012 through his daughter, says the Mirror report. Where the representation of Paes goes, the petition tries to show him as a caring father. According to a  Times of India report which quotes from the petition, “It was his vigilance that helped diagnose the child’s sleep apnea. He wakes her up for school at 6.45am, gets her ready and drives her to school. His life, it said, “revolves” around his daughter, and he lets her pursue her passion for music, ballet and taekwondo.”   In 2013, it was reported by  tabloids that the couple were headed for a divorce, which was in-correct given that they had never been married. Leander’s publicist reportedly got in touch with DNA to say, “Following an article in After Hrs on Monday (Rhea-Leander: Headed for divorce) Leander Paes’s spokesperson got in touch with us to say, “Leander and Rhea are not married. They have a daughter, but they are in a live-in relationship.” Leander has refused to comment on the petition for now.