On a wet Saturday at 8.30 am, Pakistani lady Seema Ghulam Haider and Greater Noida resident Sachin Meena exited the Luksar Jail in Gautam Budh Nagar and gave each other hugs. They had been imprisoned for five days. Haider arrived with her four kids, and Meena’s elder brother came to take them up in a Santro vehicle. The two travelled to the Meena Thakuran colony in Rabupura hamlet, where Sachin’s father, Netrapal Singh, had come the day before after his release on bail from prison.
Haider was detained on July 4 by the Gautam Budh Nagar police for unlawfully entering India without a visa via Nepal with her four children, all of them were under the age of seven. Meena and his father were also detained for providing refuge to the illegal immigrants.
to ten o’clock in the morning, Haider, Meena, her four kids, and Meena’s parents and five siblings all came to the house.
Meena and Haider wed in the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu in March of this year, according to Haider, who told HT that Meena has been her husband ever since.
I changed the names of my four children, who refer to Sachin as “Baba,” since I can’t live without him and because he is my husband, I have adopted his faith and culture as my own. I was welcomed by Sachin’s parents as well, and I have assimilated all of their cultural customs and will stay with them, according to Seema, 27.
Haider described how they first started communicating to one other in July 2020, amid the height of the Covid-19 epidemic.
“Because I had the mic on while playing PubG, I used to chat with a lot of people online. I met Sachin in this way, and we got to conversing on the chatbox. We used to play nonstop for up to four hours while never stopping to converse. We exchanged phone numbers and started talking and video chatting after approximately four months. By January 2021, we professed our love for one another, stated Haider.
The pair claims that the movie Gadar, whose premise centres on a cross-border love affair between an Indian man and a Pakistani lady, served as their inspiration.
Meena and Haider eagerly anticipated their encounter. Haider said that after applying for an Indian visa in February but having it rejected, she decided to enter the country illegally.
“I used a travel agency in Pakistan to submit an online application for an Indian visa. A gazetted officer’s signature on an invitation from an Indian citizen was one of the paperwork needed. We were unable to get a gazetted officer’s signature, even though Sachin had provided copies of his Aadhaar card for the invitation, added Haider.
Meena said that the decision to meet in Nepal in March was made at this moment.
“We met in Nepal and arranged to stay in a hotel for seven days. Here, we spoke with each other while watching Gadar on a mobile device. After that, we decided to be married,” the 21-year-old, who works at a department shop in the hamlet, said, adding, “If Seema goes to Pakistan, she would surely be murdered.”
As for playing games and conversing with other males, Haider said, “In our culture in Pakistan, women are not even allowed to use a phone.”
Meena’s parents say they embrace Haider totally. Meena’s father said, in contrast to the police officers, that he was unaware of his son’s connection with Haider. “I didn’t learn until the cops came to our house on June 30. Singh, who owns a plant nursery in Kasna village, claimed, “I had no knowledge Sachin had acquired a residence in our hamlet and that Seema was living there with four kids.
On May 11, Haider is said to have travelled to Greater Noida by bus after entering India illegally via Nepal.
“I took a flight from Karachi to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates before continuing on to Nepal. I travelled through Nepal by van to Pokhara, then by private coach to Delhi. No one has questioned me so far. The bus conductor asked me for my name and address as I got on the bus to Delhi, and I responded that my name was Seema, my husband’s name was Sachin Meena, and that we resided in Rabupura. According to Haider, I gave my kids the names Raj, Priyanka, Pari, and Munni.
From Delhi’s Kashmere Gate ISBT, Haider took a different bus to Jewar, where she got out at the Faleda crossroads in Rabupura, where Meena was waiting for her.
Since May 13, Haider and her four kids had been living with Meena in a room he leased in Ambedkar Nagar colony of Rabupura for the sum of 2,500 per month, at least a mile distant from his father’s residence in Meena Thakurain colony.
On June 29, the couple went to a lawyer in Bulandshahr for guidance on how to be legally married. But when the attorney saw Haider’s Pakistani passport, he called the police.
Later on June 30, the police in Ballabgarh caught Haider and Meena as they attempted to leave the area via bus to Palwal. The four kids were with the couple.
The charges against the three suspects, according to SM Khan, deputy commissioner of police in Greater Noida, are bailable. “The trial will now take place, and the judge will issue a ruling. Soon, a charge sheet would be submitted, he promised.
The pair must sign an undertaking at the Rabupura police station each day to demonstrate their presence in the city, according to the couple’s attorney, Hamant Krishna Parasher. The three must check in each day at the neighbourhood police station in accordance with the bail terms. The legislation prevents them from leaving the community as a consequence, he claimed.