BENGALURU: Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Niteen Yeola, husband of Karnataka cadre IPS Vartika Kartiyar who had accused him of dowry harassment and other charges, has recorded his statement before the police recently.
He stated that his wife was serving in Karnataka and the question of his family members harassing her for dowry did not arise. He has stated that Katiyar has been living separately since April 2019 and they have not met since April 2019.
“The residential address where the complainant has accused me of torturing was allotted to me in June 2019 and the complainant has never visited the house so far. So, the question of torture does not arise,” he told the police, adding that they had a love marriage and dowry was neither demanded nor given.
He alleged in his statement that despite gifting her jewels worth Rs 5 lakh, Katiyar’s greed for jewellery did not stop. “She always wanted to wear expensive jewellery ‘to suit her status’. Because of her relentless demand for jewellery, I gifted her a blue sapphire ring from Sri Lanka worth Rs 1 Lakh, which she found to be below her level. She wanted a blue sapphire ring of the size which Queen Elizabeth wears. I told her that I can gift her only what I could afford; she accepted the ring after 3-4 months only after great persuasion,” he alleged.
On the allegation that he had fractured her hand in Colombo in 2016, he claimed that she fractured her hand after hitting the shipment cartons in which marble items were stored, as she was hysterically throwing things in the house while hitting her head, hand, and legs against the walls. “I took her to the hospital after her anger calmed down. The episode was also shared with our parents and close friends. This caused immense trauma to me and my son,” he told the police in his statement.
Yeola has also given details of financial transactions between them and messages exchanged. The case was earlier registered in Cubbon Park and was transferred to Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi based on the place of the offence.