‘Viktoriia’s secret’: Man seeks reunion with son after Russian wife flees with kid to Moscow | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: Saikat Basu is crestfallen, but not vengeful. His only goal is to get Stavyo Basu, his five-year-old son, back. Born in India, the boy is currently suspected to be in custody of Saikat’s estranged wife, Viktoriia, who, in breach of Supreme Court orders, fled Delhi for Russia in July.“I am not blinded by vendetta and don’t care what happens to her (Viktoriia) in Russia, but it’s Stavyo I want to be reunited with,” says Saikat, after Delhi Police confirmed before the apex court what he had been alleging: that Russian embassy personnel had facilitated her flight from India. “More than one person from the embassy is involved. I have mailed the Indian ambassador in Russia seeking his help. I am waiting for a red corner notice to be issued (against her),” he told TOI.From Russia, without love – Hubby spills Viktoriia’s secret Fondly remembering the days he spent with his son Stavyo, the distraught father says, “Our marriage was only in name and Viktoriia was unable to get relief legally, so she decided to kidnap my son.” Pointing out that it is a rare case where the father was awarded custody of the son instead of the mother, Basu cites a mediator’s report submitted to the apex court to point out how he was always a doting father battling a wife who was negligent. “My son was earlier staying for 20 hours a day with me and she had his custody just for a few hours. The mediator’s report disclosed that the child was more comfortable with me as Viktoriia was negligent and cruel towards him since birth. Imagine the kind of mother she was that I had the maximum custody of Stavyo since he was two years old,” he says.Recalling how he met Viktoriia over Facebook in an Indo-Russian group in 2015, Basu says he was at that time in China while she was in Russia. “She came to India in 2016 when I returned on my annual holiday (15 days). She wanted to join me and landed in India, but I wasn’t keen as she is two years older than me. After my holidays ended, I returned to China where she followed me and proposed to me. I thought she was serious as she had travelled multiple countries for me, so I accepted her proposal,” Basu says. However, that’s when his nightmare started as he discovered that she had a history of drug abuse and was also involved with someone else. “So I broke up with her but she kept sending me apology letters and messages for months (Oct 2016 to Jan 2017), after which I forgave her. She invited me and I went to Moscow in Jan 2017 where I proposed to her in front of her parents. On Sept 2, 2017, we got married in Moscow. After that she joined me in China and we returned permanently to India on Feb 4, 2019. I joined a new job at that time,” he adds.Speaking about the birth of his son in Oct 2020 in Delhi, Basu says the couple battled the pandemic before heading to Chandannagar in West Bengal in Sept 2021 as Viktoriia had no interest in taking care of their son as he was born an Indian. The couple stayed in Chandannagar till March 2023. However, his troubles began piling up as she demanded to be taken to Fort Williams in Kolkata. “Despite my father saying that she won’t be allowed as she is a foreigner and also because she revealed after marriage that her father is a retired FSB intelligence officer, she kept insisting,” he says. In Feb 2023, Viktoriia’s mother came to India to see her grandchild and the families celebrated Holi and went on tours across the country. “Then all of a sudden, on March 13, 2023 afternoon, when I was in office and my parents were sleeping, Viktoriia and her mother left secretly with all their luggage and reached Delhi. But she left my son sleeping on the floor and blocked all communication with me,” says Basu. “I initially suspected they had been kidnapped as they were foreigners in a small town like Chandannagar. Then I went to police and filed a missing complaint, only to be revealed that she left home deliberately and vanished. Suddenly, on March 25, 2023, I got to know she filed a Habeas Corpus case in the Supreme Court claiming that she doesn’t know where our son is,” shudders Basu while detailing the agony. After SC asked Viktoriia why she filed a false case when the son was in her matrimonial home, she disclosed she wants to reside in Moscow, but with Basu and Stavyo. “The court asked me and I categorically refused, as even before marriage we decided to settle in India eventually,” he explains. Admittedly, the child was born in India and is a citizen of India by birth. In his plea before Supreme Court, Basu, through his lawyer Subhashish Bhowmick, pointed out that the child had an Indian passport and was accustomed and acclimatised to the conditions, culture and environments of the place of his birth, i.e., India, and could communicate very well in Bengali and English. Basu also alleged that Viktoriia invited hippies and drug addicts to her accommodation.