Hyderabad: Police on Monday seized the passport of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik and asked him not to leave the country as they questioned him in the wake of a complaint of cheating lodged by the father of a local girl Ayesha Siddiqui claiming that she was married to him.
The 29-year-old Ayesha was also questioned by Hyderabad Police which is trying to verify authenticity of the nikahnama cited by the Siddiqui family and that of the photo showing her along with 28-year-old Shoaib, a senior police officer said.
The case has been transferred to Central Crime Station, a wing of the city police, he said, adding that Shoaib has been asked not to leave the country.
Shoaib told a police team on Monday morning at the Jubilee Hills residence of 23-year-old tennis star Sania Mirza that he had been tricked into marriage with Ayesha.
"The city police questioned Shoaib Malik for one-and-a-half hours and they have also seized his passport. Immigration authorities have been informed about the case filed against Malik and his passport seizure," Additional Commissioner of Police (Coordination) Dwarka Tirumala Rao said.
Rao said, "As part of the investigation, a police team visited Sania's residence today. We are probing the matter."
The team reached on Monday morning the posh Jubilee Hill residence of Sania where Shoaib has been staying since his arrival here on Saturday following a complaint lodged by the father of Ayesha, Mohammed Siddiqui yesterday at the Banjara Hill police station.
Sania and Shoaib are scheduled to get married here on April 15.
"We are trying to collect evidence. Shoaib is cooperating and Sania is supporting him. They say they know the truth behind the whole issue," a police official said after the team talked to the cricketer.
During questioning, Shoaib told the police that he had been "cheated" by the Siddiqui family and tricked into marriage, he said.
The Pakistani cricketer had on Sunday claimed that he was emotionally forced into the nikahnama with the Hyderabad girl but said the marriage was invalid as her family had cheated him and ruled out divorce.
He said to this day he has not met the girl whose photographs were sent to him by the Siddiqui family purported to be that of Ayesha.
The charges against Shoaib are that of harassment of Ayesha, cheating to marry another girl and criminal intimidation including threats to her to keep quiet, according to Hyderabad Police Commissioner AK Khan.
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