Shoaib Malik's lawyer Ramesh Gupta on Tuesday said a representation has been submitted to the Commissioner of Police in Hyderabad and is hopeful that the Pakistani cricketer, facing charges of cheating a woman who claims to be his wife, will get his passport back soon.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi with Shoaib's brother-in-law Imran Malik by his side, Gupta said, "A representation has been submitted to the Commissioner of Police on Shoaib Malik's behalf, stating more or less the same of what Shoaib had said in his earlier press statement.
"Shoaib's passport is lying with the police and the commissioner told us that it has not been seized but they just need it for verification. Shoaib is any way here till his (April 15) marriage and we hope they would probably keep a photocopy and return the passport," Gupta said. He also made it clear that there was no plans to file a defamation case against Ayesha Siddiqui and her family who filed a complaint against the cricketer.
Imran said he was here to make arrangements for Shoaib's April 15 marriage with tennis star Sania Mirza, maintaining Shoaib's alleged 'nikah' with Ayesha was invalid.
Asked how could Shoaib sign a 'nikahnama', invalid or not, without having seen the girl, Imran said, "Had Shoaib not made the blunder, this situation would not have arisen."
Imran flew in the capital today to met with his lawyer to drwa up the future course of action.
Asked how they plan to go about the job of defending Shoaib, whose passport and mobile have been seized by Hyderabad police, Imran said, "See, this is not such a complicated thing that you need a strategy. Some people are just trying to make it look so complicated."
Imran insisted Ayesha Siddiqui, who is seeking divorce from Shoaib before the cricketer marries Sania, should come out of her self-imposed exile and not fight a war from behind the camera. "She should come out. We even don't know the real girl who is making all these allegations," he said. PTI
