KOLKATA: The public spat between actor-turned-politician Nusrat Jahan and businessmen-turned-film producer Nikhil Jain over the issue of the legitimacy of the couple’s marriage took a turn on Thursday after the husband of the TMC MP said he had requested her to get the marriage registered multiple times but she avoided.
A day after Nusrat said her marriage to him was never legal and she was in a live-in relationship with him, Nikhil on Thursday issued a statement saying, "Out of love, I proposed to marry Nusrat which she gladly accepted and we went for a destination marriage at Bodrum, Turkey in June 2019 followed by a reception at Kolkata.
"We lived together as husband and wife and introduced ourselves as a married couple in the society. During our stay together, I requested her on a number of occasions to get the marriage registered but she avoided my requests."
Nikhil also said that since August, 2020, during the shooting of a film, his wife’s behaviour started changing towards him and they started living separately from Nomvember last year.
Nusrat, on Wednesday, said her marriage to Nikhil was never legal, valid and tenable in India as the ceremony, which took place in Turkey in 2019, was done as per Turkish Marriage Regulation. "Since it was an interfaith marriage, it requires validation under the Special Marriage Act in India, which never happened," the MP said in her statement, while explaining she doesn’t not require a divorce from Nikhil.