The man, Dror Goldstein, lodged a police complaint in Goa in 2024, saying Kutina and the children had been missing.
Published Jul 19, 2025 | 12:56 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 19, 2025 | 12:56 PM
A police party stumbled upon Nina Kutina and her daughters, aged 6 and 4, during a routine patrol on 9 July. (Supplied)
Synopsis: The Russian woman, found living in a Gokarna cave in Karnataka, said she had four children, and her eldest son died in an accident, forcing her to stay back in India even after the expiry of her visa.
An Israeli man, said to be the father of two girls found with their mother in a Gokarna cave, expressed a desire to share the custody of the children.
The mother, 40-year-old Nina Kutina, had been living in the forest cave in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district with her daughters, aged 6 and 4, when a police patrol party stumbled upon them on 9 July.
The discovery caught the entire world’s attention, since the mother and children had been living in a snake-infested area.
Police stumbled upon them during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a popular tourist site on the coast. They were rescued from the cave and moved to a detention facility for foreigners living illegally in India. According to reports, police were now taking steps to repatriate Kutina to Russia for overstaying her visa.
The woman and children were found by chance. Since the area is popular with tourists, especially foreigners, the police patrol the forests regularly. When they got closer to the cave, “a little blonde girl came running out,” police told the media. The girl took the police to Kutina and the other child.
According to local reports, Kutina spent her time in the cave meditating by candlelight, and she told investigating officers she was “interested in staying in the forest and worshiping God.” She also worked as a tutor of Russian language in Goa before this incident.
Police found pictures of Hindu deities on the cave’s walls.
Media reports claimed that Kutina spent time in the cave by painting, singing, and reading books with her children. Speaking to the media, she also divulged information that she had four children between the ages of 20 and 4 years and said her eldest — “my big son” — died in a road accident in Goa last year.
Officials said her second son is 11 years old and is in Russia and that they have shared the information with the Russian authorities.
Now, the father of the girls, 38-year-old Dror Goldstein, said he wanted to share custody of his kids. It has been learnt that a police complaint was lodged in Goa in 2024 by the Israeli national on 14 December 2024, saying Kutina and the children had been missing. The complaint said Goldstein Kutina in October 2017 at Arambol during a visit to Goa.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
