The injuries suffered by Nisha on Monday night. She alleges that Karan smashed her head into the wall, a claim that Karan has denied

A few weeks ago, Bombay Times was the first to report about trouble in TV couple Karan Mehra and Nisha Rawal’s marriage. At that point, they denied the news saying all was well in their marriage. However, things have now taken an ugly turn between the two. On Monday night, Nisha filed a complaint against Karan at the Goregaon police station for assault, she alleged that he had banged her head into the wall. He was arrested thereafter and secured bail in the morning yesterday.

Nisha told BT, “One of my charges is domestic violence. I hadn’t spoken about it for so many years as I understand that for an actor his career and image are of utmost importance. In spite of being considerate and compassionate, I have had to face something like this.”

Ask her why she put up with it for so long and she replied, “Because I love him. I still do. It wasn’t easy for me to go ahead with the FIR. That’s why I put up with this behaviour. Every time he would apologise and promise to not repeat it, I would forgive him. But I finally decided that I will not be one of those women who worry more about their image. I had to speak the truth and stand up for myself and for many others who have been through hell like me.”

However, Karan has a different story to tell. According to him, Nisha smashed her head into the wall and blamed him for it. He told BT, “Nisha’s brother Rohit Sethiya had come over to our place and we were talking about the divorce on Monday night. They asked for alimony, which was too high and I told them that I couldn’t afford it.”

After the conversation, Karan said he went to his room and was on the phone with his mother when Nisha barged in and started hurling abuses at him and his family. “She then started shouting loudly and spat on me, and when I asked her to go out, she threatened me saying, ‘See what I do now’. She then went out, smashed her head on the wall and told everyone that I had done it, and her brother slapped me and punched me,” he said.

On her part, Nisha refuted his claim saying, “He will obviously say something in retaliation. It’s my word against his. It’s up to people to believe who they want to believe. Our marriage seemed perfect because I made it look like that. I would get hit black and blue, but I would still turn up for an event the next day. My marriage turned abusive around seven years ago and things became worse four years back.”

But did she ask for an exorbitant amount as alimony? “Over the years, Karan has been the financial head of our family and has taken control of everything, including my income. I invested in a relationship with complete faith,” Nisha said.

According to Nisha, Karan is having an extramarital affair. “I learnt about him being involved with another woman around a couple of months ago. I saw his text messages to the girl. Even after that, I sat him down wanting to talk about it. I wanted to save the marriage. But around a month ago, I told him that if he would continue to behave like this, then we should split amicably,” she said.

When we asked Karan about this, he vehemently denied it saying, “All these allegations are bound to come up and I will be linked with many people. These stories are baseless. I haven’t cheated on her and I’m not having an extramarital affair.”

Meanwhile, the couple’s friends from the television industry are shocked. “They have been together for so many years and were considered a beautiful couple. I can’t believe things have gone so downhill for them. We did sense that there was trouble brewing between them in recent times, but one never expected it to reach this point,” said an actor.

Karan, who became a household name with his stint as Naitik in Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, dated Nisha for six years before they tied the knot in November 2012. They have a four-year-old son. Nisha was recently seen in the TV show Shaadi Mubarak.

Regarding the case, when we reached out to DCP Vishal Thakur, he said, “Karan Mehra has been granted bail and investigations are on in the case.”

------------------------

The morning of June 1 was abuzz with the news of TV actor Karan Mehra’s arrest. The Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai actor’s wife, Nisha Rawal filed a complaint against him following a fight. He was arrested by the Mumbai Police and later granted bail.

The couple has been married for nine years and have a son. They were facing marital problems and this year in March, decided to go their separate ways, says Mehra.

Talking about what happened, he says, “We were going through a strain in our married life. We decided to mutually separate and do the best for our child. On May 31, we were talking about finance and how we would distribute things and we disagreed on certain points. She wanted more than what I could give. I explained to her that the pandemic is still here, and who knows what happens tomorrow and I would want to give my son the best.”

After the heated discussion, Rawal and her brother Rohit Sethia stepped out and returned later that night. He says, Sethia then told him that if he didn’t agree, they would go to court and fight. Mehra adds, “They can’t hold me to ransom, so I told them to go ahead. Later, Nisha barged into my bedroom. She began shouting and abusing my family, told me, ‘I will ruin your life’, spat on me, and I told her not to behave in this manner. I got up to go into the bathroom when she suddenly banged her head on the wall and said, ‘ab dekho kya hota hai’. She has mood swings and a violent anger streak. Five-six years ago, she was diagnosed as Bi-polar. People, including our friends and relatives have seen her behaviour and I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Mehra admits that he is heartbroken that things have come to this. He adds, “People know me in the industry and know what I have put in this marriage. Today, I am not in a position to give what she wants and this is what I get? If I give her all that I earn, how will I survive?”

The couple had set up cameras inside the house as they have staff but Mehra claims that Rawal and her brother had apparently switched them off. “They took out their phone cameras to record what happened. It felt like a plot. They called the cops and so did I and even the cops understood what the truth was. I am not a violent person,” he says.

At the time of going to press, despite repeated calls, Nisha Rawal was unavailable for comment.