The Israeli father of the two children found living in a Karnataka cave with their Russian mother Nina Kutina has sought their shared custody and urged authorities not to deport his daughters to Russia along with her.
Speaking to indianexpress.com along with his legal representative, Brar Goldstien, 38, said on Wednesday that he was worried about his daughters’ future as Kutina, 40, allegedly did not allow them to be schooled formally or to interact with other people.
“It is true that the children should have their mother. But being their father, I want to spend time with them too,” he said, accusing Kutina of refusing access to his daughters since October 2024.
Goldstien said Kutina had two boys from an earlier relationship and that he was taking care of one of them as the other boy had died in an accident in October last year. He said Kutina had initially demanded he stay with them as a family, but subsequently started alienating him from his children.
Brar Goldstien and his daughter (Express Photo)
Goldstien said that a complaint was filed at the Panajim police station in Goa last December, as he was unable to find them following his return to India on a renewed visa. In the police complaint, Goldstien said he met Kutina first in 2017 and was living with her two sons. Subsequently, he alleged that Kutina would “assault me physically” and “extract monies from me to send her mother, build their house, etc.”
Goldstien said that he started cutting off his contact with Nina because of her behaviour towards him and felt that he was used “only for money purpose”.
According to the complaint, “Nina had began to show aggressive behaviour, violent conducts and fluctuating mood swings towards me as well as my second son… she would use abusive language and would also assault and hurt me on various occasions over petty issues.”
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Goldstien said that though he visited the Foreigners Regional Registration Office twice to meet his daughters, he was refused access to them. While the first of the two daughters were born in Ukraine the second was born in India.
Kutina was found overstaying in India last week with her two daughters in a cave. She was removed from the place and sent to the FRRO for deportation to Russia.