Last month, Karan Mehra held a press conference during which he addressed allegations levelled against him by his estranged wife, Nisha Rawal. He accused her of framing him in false cases, being in an extramarital relationship with her rakhi brother, Rohit Satia, and not giving access to meet his son, Kavish.

On Monday, Nisha hit back at Karan, accusing him of maligning her and spreading lies. At a press conference, she said, “I want to counter a few allegations levelled against me for people to know that they shouldn’t mistake my silence for my weakness. I am busy earning a living and providing for my child and managing a lot of things. I am not here to attack anyone, but to protect myself because a child is involved.”

For the uninitiated, the TV couple’s marriage went downhill when Nisha filed a complaint against Karan at the Goregaon Police Station on June 1, 2021 alleging that he had banged her head against a wall. Karan was arrested and later released on bail. Later, she filed cases against him and his family for domestic violence, dowry and criminal intimidation. She also accused him of having an extramarital affair.

In his press conference last month, Karan had accused Nisha of being in a relationship with her rakhi brother of 14 years, Rohit Satia.

While the actress refused to divulge too much on the topic, she said, “Once Karan and I have broken up, what I do in my personal life is none of his business and what he does in his life is none of mine. We are adults and know how to conduct ourselves. We are not answerable to each other after we have walked away from each other’s lives. If the divorce proceedings take five years to be completed, am I expected to just hang in there? Also, I don’t wish to disclose the identity of the girl with whom he has been having an affair as I don’t want her to be subjected to trolling. However, details regarding the girl have been submitted in court.”

When asked about the nature of her equation with Rohit, she said, “It’s not pertaining to the case and I don’t have to clear the air just because Karan has put an allegation on me. I am not answerable for everything he says.”

While Karan has claimed that he doesn’t have access to his son, whom he has been yearning to meet for the past 10 months, Nisha said, “Yes, I took an injunction order against him. He never turned around to see Kavish’s need since our fallout and barged into our home unannounced on November 2, accompanied by six people. I was COVID positive then. It was quite intimidating. He had no permission to enter the house. The least he could have done was to inform me in advance. I filed a police complaint. He can always take legal recourse to meet Kavish. I was fine with him acquiring the visitation rights, but he didn’t take it. He wanted full custody of the child.”

Nisha added, “I want to put this behind us and settle it amicably because there is a child involved. I don’t want to cause any damage to Karan. He should live his life and leave me alone. We need to sit down and talk. I am not interested in mudslinging. I have taken care of my child and will do that in the future, too.”

Responding to Karan’s allegation of living in his flat, Nisha said that she co-owns the house with him. She added, “The house is registered in our names. After Karan’s press conference, I was inundated with nasty messages from trolls asking me to vacate the house. I am stabilising myself and I have a child. I can’t just walk out overnight. Clearly, he doesn’t care where I would go with my child. It is strange of him to claim that I live in his house after he wrote to the bank that he would like to surrender the house, as he can’t pay the EMIs and I should be paying them instead. The house is on moratorium till January 2023 and I will vacate it before that.”

While talking about their issues, Karan had said, ‘Mudda saara paise ka hai’. Nisha slammed him by saying that she hasn’t asked for alimony. She said, “When we met in 2008, he was working as an assistant stylist for a film, in which I was the heroine. Mudda kabhi paise ka tha hi nahi. We built everything together. He bagged the TV show Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai two years after meeting me. I have not asked for alimony — we have only asked for maintenance for the child. I have also said that if Karan doesn’t want to pay that, too, I am fine. In fact, in his new counter-petition, Karan has asked for full custody and wants me to pay maintenance for him and the child.”

The actress wants to end the marriage in a dignified way. “I am a peace-loving person and want him to live in peace. I want to focus on my work now. Tamaasha banta jaa raha hai. I am not playing the sympathy card or the woman’s card. Karan is, in fact, playing the sympathy card,” she added.

Now that she wants things to be settled amicably, what about the cases she has filed against Karan and his family? In a chat with us after the press conference, she said, “Sometimes in life, we have to be a part of battles we don’t want to fight, but when we are in it, if we don’t fight with all our might, we could lose everything. Yes, there is an FIR, which was my right. However, I do not wish Karan, the child, and me to go through the ripples of these after-effects. I don’t want the proceedings of this dispute to affect the mental health and upbringing of my child and that is of utmost importance to me. For this sole reason, I wish for an amicable settlement.”