DHAKA: A top Bangladeshi cricketer is embroiled in a scandal after revealing he had secretly married a woman who filed a case against him for posting intimate photos of her on social media—even though he already had a wife.
Left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny was arrested in January and taken into custody after Nasrin Sultana filed the case against him, but at the time it was not known that the pair had married. Polygamy is legal in Bangladesh, where men can take up to four wives, but it is increasingly rare, particularly in young urban communities.
The 30-year-old cricketer was released on bail in March, but on Wednesday, lawyers for Nasrin said they had asked the court to cancel his bail. Lawyer Delwar Jahan Rumi told AFP they had taken the step because the cricketer had broken a promise to give her expenses and start a family with her. The spinner was initially accused of opening a fake Facebook account in Nasrin’s name and posting “intimate photos” which she found “offensive and defamatory”. If found guilty, Sunny could be jailed for up to 14 years and fined 10 million takas ($125,000) under the tough cyber laws.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has said that Sunny, who has played 16 one-day internationals and 10 Twenty20 internationals, could also be banned from the sport.
He was suspended from international matches during the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 for the illegal bowling action, and has been playing domestic first-class cricket since. Sunny’s lawyer Jewel Ahmed said Nasrin was refusing to live with him unless he divorced his first wife—a claim she denied.
“We told the court that he wants to keep both wives,” Ahmed said. “Sunny has rented an apartment for Nasrin but she has refused to live with him there unless he divorces his first wife.”
The court asked one of Sunny’s lawyers to settle the dispute between the two and set July 6 as the next day for the hearing.
