After spending five days inside prison, Pakistani woman Seema Ghulam Haider and Indian citizen Sachin Meena were released on bail from jail on Saturday. The India-Pakistan love story that started via the popular mobile game PUBG, became a headline last week after Greater Noida resident, also Sachin's neighbour questioned the legitimacy of the couple's marriage and registered a complaint at the police station. Thereafter, the Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested Haider on 4 July for illegally entering India without a visa via Nepal with her four children -- all aged below seven years. Besides, her Indian husband Sachin and father-in-law were arrested for sheltering the illegal immigrant.
However, on Saturday, the Uttar Pradesh court granted bail to the couple who were behind bars for five days at Luksar jail. As they stepped out of jail, they hugged each other. But the court has put a condition with the bail that Seema would not change her place of residence as long as the case is underway and the couple would mark their presence before the court regularly.
Haider arrived with her four children, while Sachin’s older brother came in a Santro car to pick them up. The two went to Rabupura village’s Meena Thakuran colony, where Sachin’s father, Netrapal Singh, had arrived a day earlier.
Haider said that Sachin had been her husband since March of this year when the two married at the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu.
She firmly said that she cannot live without Sachin and added, "I have accepted his religion and culture as my own and changed the names of my four children, who call Sachin ‘Baba’. Sachin’s parents have also accepted me, and I have adopted all their cultural practices and will continue to live with them".
The duo had got in touch in 2019 while playing PUBG and fell in love. Haider said that they began talking to each other in July 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Advocate Hemant Krishna Parashar, who represented the Indo-Pak couple claimed claimed that Seema and Sachin got married in Nepal earlier this year and the woman feels a threat to her life if she goes back to Pakistan.
"Seema told me in writing that she and Sachin had got married in Kathmandu, Nepal. I informed the court about this. I also argued that Seema first went from Pakistan to Nepal and then came to India. Those coming from Nepal to India are not required to carry a passport or have a visa," Parashar said.
He said the court was satisfied with the arguments and granted bail to the couple.
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