HYDERABAD: Indian police on Monday seized Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik's passport while he was quizzed at the home of his fiancee, tennis player Sania Mirza, over claims he is already married.Preparations for the sporting stars' cross-border wedding have been marred by allegations that Malik married an Indian woman Ayesha Siddiqui "by telephone" in 2002.
Sania and Shoaib's marriage plans have already generated huge public interest across Pakistan and India, two countries normally locked in fierce rivalry. Now Siddiqui's claims have created a scandal.
"It is a preliminary investigation. The Siddiqui family have lodged a complaint and police are verifying the facts," Andhra Pradesh state police chief R.R. Girish Kumar said. "His passport has been seized by police."
In an interview with an Indian newspaper on Sunday, Malik said he began a telephone relationship with Siddiqui in 2001 after she sent him photographs.
He and his family repeatedly attempted to meet Siddiqui as he wanted to marry her but she always refused, he said.
Malik admitted to the newspaper that in 2002 that he signed a "nikahnama" (wedding agreement) "thinking the girl I was marrying was the one in the photographs."
But "the girl who was accepting the proposal was someone else," he said, without giving further details.
In a bizarre twist, Malik claimed he had spent time with Ayesha Siddiqui's "elder sister" who told him that Ayesha would not meet him as she had put on weight. Malik said he now believes the "sister" was actually Ayesha herself.
Malik, 28, arrived on Saturday in Hyderabad, where he is scheduled to marry 23-year-old Mirza on April 15.
The couple -- who are both Muslim -- plan to live in Dubai after the ceremony.
But Siddiqui has threatened to sue Malik, a wealthy international sportsman, if he refuses to "formally divorce" her before marrying Mirza.
Siddiqui has circulated supposed copies of her nuptial agreement to media outlets in India and Pakistan and has appeared on television to denounce Malik as a cheat who dumped her because his teammates said she was fat.
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