Meera's husband booked for theft

In the latest twist in Pakistani actress Meera's stormy marriage, police have booked her husband Attique-ur-Rehman on charges of theft and threatening her life.

Meera had filed a petition in a Lahore court alleging that Attique-ur-Rehman had stolen goods worth of Rs.1.1 million after entering into her house and had also threatened to kill her.

Despite a direction to register a case against Attique-ur-Rehman, the police adopted delaying tactics, prompting the court to pass another order, reports said.

The police finally registered a case against Attique-ur-Rehman on Sunday/Monday night and handed over the first information report (FIR) to the Investigation Commission Wing.

However, Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who gave Meera her lone break in Bollywood, has a different take on the issue.

"Yes, Meera did call from Lahore. Some guy claiming to be her husband tried to break into her home and kill her! At that time she seemed quite genuine in her call for help. Meanwhile Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was very prompt in taking action, but Meera was still inconsolable," Bhatt told IANS in Mumbai earlier this month.

However, the situation turned out to be quite different. Reports started making the rounds that the man in question was indeed Meera's husband and had papers and photographs to back his statement. Apparently, he tried to reach Meera, but her guards prevented him from entering her house.

"While I was trying to call people in Pakistan and take stock of the issue, I was informed by Sohail Khan (a filmmaker from Pakistan) that news channels all over the country were beaming photographs of the couple as well as their 'nikaahnama' (marriage contract). This seemed to be substantial evidence that made me call up Meera again," Bhatt said.

Through the conversation that followed, "I realised that the situation wasn't as clean as it sounded earlier", Bhatt said. "Also, I could sense that Meera too wasn't as truthful as she wanted me to believe.

"She, in fact, did admit that the two of them were in a relationship, but denied her marriage to him. She said that she would get back to me later, but that never happened."

Mahesh Bhatt, along with brother Mukesh Bhatt, had launched Meera in Bollywood with Nazar (2005), which was directed by Soni Razdan. Meera was paired opposite Ashmit Patel in the film, which had failed at the box office.

This was not the first time that Meera had reached out to Bhatt for help.

Last year she had landed up at Bhatt's house at around 2 a.m. after being troubled by a guy. At that time she was living in Mumbai and didn't have anyone else to help her.

Bhatt had then asked Sevy Ali, who had produced Nazar, to help out Meera. But she was miffed with him because he refused to shelter her.