In Mexico
Cécile Denise Acosta Reynaud and I were a couple for a little more than four years, from July 2003 to September 2007. With some periods better than others, it was basically a good relationship. Physical violence of one against the other was never present. She sometimes broke objects when she was angry, mostly glasses and plates, but also windows. In extreme situations I broke objects too, specially after she had broken several already, because that made her stop. Such kind of situations did not occur often; it might have happened some four or five times from her part, and two of those times I broke something too.
After almost three years of being a couple, our daughter was born. When the child was 15 months old, we decided to put an end to the relationship. During the following three years, two simultaneous and very serious situations took place:
1) In rare occasions Cécile lost her patience completely and hit our daughter. It did not happen often, but the blows were very hard, with the closed fist and even with a wooden rod. I asked her repeatedly to stop doing that and finally, as it kept on happening, I warned her that if she did it again I would report it to the authorities. Just after I told her that, she went to the police station to accuse me of having beaten her, but the accusation did not proceed. Some months later she hit our daughter again and I reported it to the authorities, which was enough to make her stop.
2) Since our daughter began to talk, soon before completing two years of age, she started to speak about mistreatment by her maternal grandmother and her husband. Cécile suggested to take the child to a specialized center, dependent on the Police Department of Mexico City. There we were told that there was actually evidence of such mistreatment, and that if we did not denounce the facts formally, there would be legal responsibility from our part. Then I made the denounce, both to protect our daughter and to protect ourselves of a possible legal responsibility.
I will not talk in depth about these topics for two reasons: one is that they are not closely related to the disappearance of Cécile Denise Acosta Reynaud, nor with the trial I face in India. The second one is to avoid the re-victimization of our daughter.
At the beginning of 2011, Cécile and I decided to leave Mexico, maybe forever. She thought that both our families exerted a negative influence for the raising/education of our daughter and for our relationship as her parents. I only agreed in what concerned some members of Cécile’s family, but nevertheless I believed that leaving the country was the best course of action. Here I must mention that since our separation, none of us had ever the intention of coming back again as a couple. She had two or three boyfriends during that time in Mexico, and I had one girlfriend. Our relationship was limited to raising and educating our daughter.
Cécile wanted to come to India to study dance, and had applied to get a scholarship for such purpose since 2009. I had originally planned to go to Poland, but at the last moment managed to make the necessary changes to go to India as well. We made an agreement, at first just between ourselves, but later before a judge of Family Affairs because Cécile insisted on it (I was opposed to such idea at the beginning, but it turned out to be a very wise measure). In such agreement we stated the basic guidelines regarding the raising and education of our daughter, and we also established that we would alternate her custody for periods of 14 months. The idea was to try to live in nearby places, so that both of us could be in close contact with our daughter at all times, but the final decision regarding the place of residency of the child was to fall on the person having the custody at the time.
Agreement (Translation) Agreement (Spanish Original)
In India
While we were living in India before the disappearance of Cécile Denise Acosta Reynaud, my daughter and I lived in Kalasalingam University, where I was performing a postdoctoral Fellowship. Cécile studied at Kalamandalam University, some six hours away from us.
Cécile used to go to Kalasalingam every three weeks, more or less, and then she stayed at our home from 2 to 5 days. During such time, she slept with our daughter in her bedroom. Although she spent a lot of time with the child, she used to work for long periods as well, using a computer I lent her.
We had a good relationship; much better than the one we had had in Mexico. Although we were not close to each other, we did talk regarding our lives, our impressions about India and, of course, regarding the education and development of our daughter. According to the agreement, we were supposed to talk about our daughter only through writing but, being in the same house, we very often did it verbally. We generally cooked and had our food together.
Once Cécile took our daughter to her home for one week. She also invited me so that we three would be there on vacation, but my own laboral responsibilities and the exams of our daughter at school did not allow it. Cécile had planned long holidays with our daughter in Europe, where her brother was living. Originally that was going to be on the summer of 2012, but her brother had a newborn son and asked her to postpone it till December, so they were supposed to go there for Christmas.