Threat to celebrity wedding

The sports celebrity wedding of the year, of Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, has hit the skids - Malik's "wife" has spoken out after a two-year silence.

Indian police yesterday questioned Malik ahead of his planned marriage to Mirza regarding allegations made by another woman, Ayesha Siddiqi, who claims to be his first wife after a "wedding by telephone".

The news made international headlines in 2008 when Siddiqi claimed Malik telephonically exchanged marriage vows with her after an Internet romance in 2002.

At the time, Malik admitted to an Internet romance with a girl called Ayesha, whom he spoke to regularly by phone. "Ayesha" sent him photographs of herself, but the woman they show does not look like Ayesha Siddiqi. Malik realised this in 2005 and broke off the "relationship".

Now, weeks before Malik's marriage to Mirza, Siddiqi has filed a complaint accusing him of subjecting her "to cruelty and harassment by denying that the wedding took place and by trying to marry another woman".

Malik has been asked not to leave India while the police in Hyderabad investigate the charges, senior police official AK Khan said yesterday.

Police visited Mirza's Hyderabad home yesterday, where Malik has been staying since last week. He travelled there from Pakistan to make arrangements for his wedding to the tennis star, scheduled for April 15.

The police are investigating complaints of criminal intimidation, cheating, fraud and harassment for dowry against the Pakistani cricketer, Stephan Ravindra, the deputy commissioner of police, said. Police also questioned Siddiqi.

Malik and Mirza told reporters that they would go ahead with the wedding on April 15.

"I am very upset [by the controversy]," Mirza said. "It's very painful for my family. But we are happy that we are getting married. I have full faith in him. We know what the truth is. It will come out."

Malik said he would stay in India to clear his name.

"I am co-operating with the police. I have done nothing wrong," he said.

The news of the Malik-Mirza wedding sparked news coverage in the region.

Mirza broke off a previous engagement earlier this year before announcing her plans to marry Malik.

But Siddiqi claims to have a copy of a nikahnama (marriage certificate) issued by the Pakistani authorities in June 2002 which carries Malik's signature as well as those of two witnesses.

Farooq Hasan, a lawyer representing Siddiqi in Pakistan, told reporters in Lahore that he would file a case against Malik in Pakistan's civil and criminal courts.

"We will also try to stop Malik's marriage with Sania Mirza," Hasan said.