Shoaib Malik may have given 'talaq' to Maha Siddiqui on Wednesday hoping to free his mind of the worry of police cases before his marriage, but indications are that it'll take some time before he is out of the legal mess.
"An offence under Section 498 A of IPC has been registered against him. This is a serious charge, this can't be withdrawn against him at one go," a police officer told Times of India. Section 498 (A) relates to "harassment of a married woman by her husband or his family members".
Acting on Maha's letter to the police commissioner seeking withdrawal of all charges against Shoaib, cops of the Central Crime Station (dealing with the case) are now seeking the opinion of K Sreevani, public prosecutor of the 13th chief additional metropolitan magistrate court, on how to free Shoaib of the legal hassles. This court deals with all CCS cases and thus has the authority to close the Maha-Shoaib matter.
Sources said Sreevani has told police that while they can theoretically close a case saying "action dropped for lack of evidence", in this case they can't do so. This because they have collected all evidence and presented it to a court.
In what could add to Shoaib's woes, the public prosecutor has told the police that section 498 (A) of IPC can be compromised upon only if the two parties (Maha and Shoaib) decide to live together. Since that is impossible in this case, it'll take at least three months for this section to be dropped against him.
