By IANS,
Hyderabad: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza’s marriage with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik next month is not likely to be a smooth affair with Malik facing the threat of legal action for allegedly cheating a girl after marrying her.
A day after Sania Mirza announced her decision to marry Malik next month, the past has returned to haunt the former Pakistani captain.
Mohammed Ahmed Siddiqui, a businessman from this city, has threatened to sue Malik for cheating his daughter Ayesha Siddiqui. He told an Indian news channel that he would approach the court to demand divorce for his daughter.
“I want Malik to divorce my daughter so that she can marry again and start her life afresh,” the channel quoted him as saying.
He claimed that the news of Sania’s marriage with Malik has shocked his family. He also remarked that Sania would be the second wife of Malik.
Ayesha’s mother Farisa Siddiqui has also hit out at Sania saying she was marrying Malik despite knowing what happened to her daughter. Farisa wanted to know why Sania fell for Malik and wondered if she called off her engagement with Sohrab Mirza to marry the Pakistani national.
The top ranking Indian woman tennis player called off her engagement with childhood friend Sohrab two months ago citing “incompatibility”.
Sania had Tuesday said that the controversy involving Malik was not on her mind. “I live in the present and so does he (Malik),” she had said.
The Siddiqui family claims that Malik married Ayesha on June 3, 2002, through exchange of vows (nikah) over telephone but the Pakistani cricketer has denied this. While admitting that they were engaged, Malik said he called it off as the two families could not reach an understanding on some issues.
In February 2008, M.A. Siddiqui had threatened to sue Malik for denying the marriage with Ayesha. He also claimed that he has the proof of marriage but did not file the case after Malik’s family accused him of cheating and warned of legal action.
The Pakistani team, icluding Malik, had been treated to a grand reception at the Siddiqui residence here in 2005 during the team’s visit to India.
However, in January 2008 Malik announced that he was calling off the engagement with Ayesha.
Secrecy still shrouds the whole episode but Malik’s family members reportedly claimed that Ayesha was not the girl Malik fell in love with after a meeting in a Dubai restaurant in 2001.
Ayesha was reportedly accompanying another girl Maha during the meeting. Malik fell for the latter but Ayesha, posing as Maha, started chatting with Malik over the Internet. She reportedly convinced her parents to arrange nikah over telephone. The Pakistani cricketer snapped the relations when he came to know that it was not Maha who had been chatting with him.