Cross-border love story goes awry: Couple held while entering India illegally

According to BSF officials, the couple met on Facebook four years ago and stayed in touch. But recently the woman’s family started insisting that they should get married. The man’s family agreed

A cross-border love story that started on a social networking site went awry, as the couple, while trying to enter India without documents after getting married in Bangladesh, was arrested by the Border Security Force.

Representational image. (AFP)

The man was identified as Jaikato Chandra Rai, 24, a resident of Nadia district in West Bengal. The 18-year-old woman, Parineeti, is a resident of Narail district in Bangladesh. The couple was arrested on June 26.

“Human traffickers often adopt new methods to trap women, who are later often pushed into the sex trade. But after a thorough interrogation we didn’t find any foul play in this case. Both families knew about the wedding and had given their consent,” said a senior BSF official.

According to BSF officials, the couple met on Facebook four years ago and stayed in touch. But recently the woman’s family started insisting that they should get married. The man’s family agreed.

“The man said arranging documents would have taken a long time, particularly during the pandemic, so he crossed over to Bangladesh on March 8 with the help of a local tout. On March 10, they got married. The couple stayed in Bangladesh till June 25,” said a BSF official.

As they didn’t have any valid documents, they had to enter India illegally. A Bangladeshi tout, identified as Raju Mondol, took around ₹10,000 to help them cross the international border and enter India, where they were arrested.

The duo was handed over to the local police. A senior police officer said that even though the man would get bail, the woman would have to stay in a shelter home till the time she gets Indian citizenship.