Out on bail, Indo-Pak 'PUBG couple' plan new chapter

Sachin Meera and Seema Haider, who made headlines recently over their unusual love story, are planning to start a new chapter after the receiving bail.

They were granted bail on Friday by a court in Jewar. It also ordered that as long as the case continues, Seema will not change her residence and live with Sachin.

Seema was arrested on July 4 for illegally entering India without a visa via Nepal with her four children, all aged below seven years, while Sachin was put behind bars for sheltering the illegal immigrants.

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After being released, Sachin, 22, and Seema, 30, reached the former's parents' house at Meena Thakuran colony in Greater Noida's Rabupura area to live together along with her children.

Subsequently, in an interview with NDTV, Seema said, "My husband is a Hindu, so I am a Hindu. I feel I am an Indian now."

Seema and Sachin had got in touch in 2019 while playing the popular online game, PUBG, and eventually grew closer to the extent that they decided to live together in India—all unknown to her husband Ghulam Haider, who was away in Saudi Arabia for work.

In another interview with Indian Express, Seema recalled how the two first got in touch with each other. “I started playing PUBG in early 2020… I liked how Sachin played the game, so I initiated a conversation and we became friends. Slowly our friendship turned to love and we looked into the possibility of meeting. Sachin did not have a passport, but I had one… We then found out that Indians could travel to Nepal without a visa and decided to meet there. We met in March and got married at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu before heading back to our countries… my children were staying at my uncle’s house in the interim," she said.

Back in Pakistan, Seema, who claimed to have a discordant relationship with her husband, sold a plot for 12 lakh Pakistani rupees to arrange for flight tickets and visas to Nepal for herself and her children, according to police.

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In May she reached Nepal via Dubai and spent some time in the tourist city of Pokhara in the Himalayan nation. Then she took a bus for Delhi from Kathmandu and reached Greater Noida on May 13 with her children where Sachin had made arrangements for her to stay in a rented accommodation without disclosing her Pakistani identity.

More than one-and-a-half-months later, local police got a whiff of a Pakistani woman and her children's illegal presence in their area. Sachin, Seema and her children tried to evade police arrest and fled, but were caught in Ballabhgarh in Haryana. Police then questioned them and officially arrested them on July 4, the officials said.

They also arrested Sachin's father, Netrapal Singh (50), accusing him of helping in sheltering illegal immigrants. Singh was also granted bail by the local court on Thursday, a day before it ordered the release of the couple.

In a video message from Saudi Arabia, Seema's husband Ghulam Haider urged the Indian government to help him reunite with his wife. He said it was through the Indian media that he got to know that his wife and children are in Greater Noida.

However, Seema told reporters that she did not wish to go back to Ghulam Haider and claimed a threat to her life if she returned to their native place in Pakistan, citing stringent local laws.

(With PTI inputs)