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A 30-year-old Indian man illegally crossed the Pakistan border to meet a woman he had befriended on Facebook, with intentions of marrying her, but instead found himself arrested. The woman, however, informed the local authorities that she had no intention to marrying him.
Badal Babu, from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh, was detained last week in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province, which was approx 240 kilometers from Lahore, for illegally crossing the border.
Babu attempted to enter Pakistan unlawfully to meet his Facebook friend, whom he genuinely wanted to marry.
The police recorded a statement from Babu's Facebook friend, Sana Rani, 21, who said that she was not interested in marrying him. "In her statement to police, Sana Rani says that Babu and she have been friends on Facebook for the last two-and-a-half years. But she is not interested in marrying him," stated Nasir Shah, a Punjabi police officer, to PTI on Thursday.
According to Shah, Babu had crossed the border illegally & reached Sana Rani’s village, Maung, in Mandi Bahauddin, where he was seized by law enforcement.
When asked whether Babu had met Rani, the police officer elaborated that he could not confirm this.
It has not been totally verified whether Rani gave a statement refusing to marry Babu under duress. Anyways, a source informed PTI that officials from an intelligence agency asked Rani and her family members regarding her connection with Babu.
During his arrest, Babu recounted his "love story" to the authorities. He was charged under Pakistan's Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 for traveling without proper documents with him.
Babu was presented in court later on, where he was remanded into judicial custody for 14 days. The next hearing is scheduled for 10th of January.
This is not the first time of an individual from India crossing into Pakistan to meet an online romantic interest.
Earlier, an Indian woman named Anju traveled to Pakistan to meet her lover. She then got converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man, Nasrullah.
In 2024, Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman, befriended an Indian man via the PUBG game. She entered in India through Nepal with her 4 children and eventually married him.
Similarly, in the previous year, 19-year-old Pakistani girl named Iqra Jiwani developed a friendship with 25-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh Yadav through an online game. Iqra and Mulayam later got married in Nepal.