A 30-year-old Indian man crossed over illegally into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry, but inst💞ead found himself behind bars. And the woman told the local police she does not want to tie the knot.
Badal Babu from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested last week 🐟in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province (some 240 kms from Lahore) for illegal border crossing.
Babu attempted to cross the border illeꦕgally to meet the Facebook friend with whom he wanted to marry.
Police have recorded the statement of Babu's Facebook friend Sana Rani, 21, who said she was🃏n't 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," a Punjab poli📖ce officer, Nasir Shah, told PTI on Thursday.
He said Babu illegally crossed the border and reached Sana Rani's Maung village in Mandi Bahauddin, where h༒e was arrested by law enforcers.
When asked whether Babu met Rani, the police 🍎officer said he couldn't confirm this.
It i🐲s also not independently confirmed whether Rani gave a statement to the police refusing to marry Babu under press❀ure.
However, a source told PTI that officials of an intelligence agency quizzed Rani and her other family members over her relationship w🦩ith Babu.
Upon his arrest, Babu ꦅnarrated his "♏love story" to the police. Babu was detained under Pakistan’s Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 as he was travelling without any legal documents.
Later, he was presented befo♏re a court, which placed him in judicial custody fo🧸r 14 days. The next hearing is on January 10.
This is not the🅷 first time someone from India has crossed into Pakistan to meet a love interest developed through sღocial media.
Previously, an Indian woman named Anju travelled to𒀰 Pakistan to meet her lover. ꦛShe converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man, Nasrullah.
Last year, Seema Haider, a woman🐠 from Pakistan, befriended an Indian man through the P𒆙UBG game. She crossed into India via Nepal with her four children and later married him.
Similarly, last year, 19-year-old Pakistani girl Iqra Jiwani developed a friendship with 25-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh 🍒Yadav through an online game. Iqra and Mulayam later married in Nepal.
