Shoaib Malik In Town, Faces FIR

With Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik landing in Hyderabad, India, on Sunday, the Shoaib-Ayesha story has been led into deeper controversy. Shoaib has flown into town for his impending wedding with tennis star Sania Mirza, but he has now been caught in a worsening situation over his alleged first marriage to Hyderabadi girl Ayesha Siddiqui.

Ayesha’s family, that had so far cried foul at the Mirzas' and Malik’s declaration of Sania's wedding with Shoaib Malik, has now filed cases against the Pakistani sportsman. The cases include subjecting a married woman to cruelty (section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code), cheating (section 420 of the IPC) and criminal intimidation (section 506 of the IPC).

Ayesha has accused Shoaib of marrying her, inflicting mental harassment on her, and then denying that the marriage ever took place. Also, allegedly, Shoaib had paid Ayesha a sum of a million dollars to hush up the marriage and had threatened her not to go to the media.

Meanwhile, Shoaib faces a threat of imprisonment even according to Pakistani law, as it states that a man cannot take a second wife without divorcing the first or at least take her consent. The Siddiquis had already reportedly dispatched a legal notice to his family on Saturday, which is set to reach them on Monday.

On his part, Shoaib had issued a press statement in which he admitted to the nikaah but said that he was cheated by fake pictures of Ayesha, while all along he kept thinking he was married to someone else.

Photographs are being released to the press by Ayesha's family, but it remains to be seen who will finally be caught on the wrong side of the law.

Shoaib is set to be in Hyderabad until the 15th of April, the day of his wedding with Sania Mirza.