The Israeli former partner of Nina Kutina, who was found hiding out in a hidden Indian cave with her two daughters, is seeking custody of the girls, according to international media reports.
Israeli national Dror Goldstein met Kutina in 2017, according to the Guardian, and Kutina gave birth to their first daughter a year later in Ukraine after she was deported to Russia from India for overstaying her visa.
Goldstein told Indian media that he continued to send funds to Kutina during their separation.
In 2020, Kutina returned to India and reunited with Goldstein in Goa, quickly becoming pregnant with their second daughter.
Goldstein told Indian Media that after the second birth, Kutina would withdraw for long periods with their children.
He explained that as he traveled to Nepal to renew his visa, Kutina’s son from a previous relationship died in a motorcycle accident, and he returned to find his family missing.
Explaining that he reported his children missing in 2024, Goldstein recounted to Indian media how he “didn’t know where they were.” A friend told him that she was hiding out in Gokarna, but when he went to find her and spend time with his daughters, Kutina had allegedly made clear “she didn’t want me to visit.”
“We haven’t been a couple for some years now. Nina insists that if I want to be with the children, I must live with them, but I don’t wish to share the same home,” he said. “I want to be involved only in the lives of my two daughters.”
Finding the family hiding in the cave
Police recently located Kutina and the two young daughters living in a cave hidden in a jungle, and forcibly removed them, citing safety concerns.
Police in the state of Karnataka located the mother and daughters on July 9 after finding red saris in trees. Approaching the cave, officers found a statue of a Hindu god and a young blonde child. After entering the cave, they found Kutina asleep with her youngest daughter.
Police believe the trio had spent the past week living in the cave, though they had frequented the hidden enclaves for the past nine months.
Despite police warnings about wild animals and the risks of living in the forested area, Kutina reportedly insisted that humans were dangerous and “animals and snakes are our friends.” She explained she made the move to bring her daughters to nature and away from urban life.
The family had survived with a small gas stove and other camping supplies.
After being removed from the cave, Kutina and the children were taken for medical tests and then to a shelter. She reportedly contacted a friend to complain about the situation and wrote she had been “placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep for ‘protection from rain and snakes’…. Once again, evil has won.”
The family is expected to be returned to Russia.