Guwahati: A 30-year-old Indian man found himself in jail after illegally crossing into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend whom he hoped to marry, only for the woman to inform the authorities she had no intention of marrying him.
Badal Babu, from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, was detained last week in Mandi Bahauddin, a district in Pakistan’s Punjab province, approximately 240 kilometers from Lahore, for illegally crossing the border.
Babu had crossed over in an attempt to meet 21-year-old Sana Rani, a woman he had befriended on Facebook.
However, according to Punjab police officer Nasir Shah, Rani stated that she was not interested in marrying him.
“She has been friends with Babu on Facebook for two and a half years but has no intention of marrying him,” Shah told PTI on Thursday.
Rani told the police that Babu made his way to her village, Maung, in Mandi Bahauddin, where he was arrested by local authorities.
Whether Babu actually met Rani remains unclear, and it is not independently verified whether her statement was given under any pressure.
However, sources suggest that intelligence officials interrogated Rani and her family members about her relationship with Babu.
After his arrest, Babu reportedly shared his “love story” with the police.
He was charged under Pakistan’s Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 for traveling without legal documents.
He was subsequently brought before a court, which placed him in judicial custody for 14 days.
His next hearing is scheduled for January 10.
This incident is not an isolated one, as social media-driven romances have led others to cross borders in the past.
In a similar case, Anju, an Indian woman, traveled to Pakistan to marry her lover, converting to Islam before marrying Nasrullah, a Pakistani man.
Additionally, Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman, crossed into India via Nepal with her children to marry her Indian online friend.
In another case, 19-year-old Pakistani Iqra Jiwani married 25-year-old Indian Mulayam Singh Yadav in Nepal after developing an online friendship through gaming.
