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U.P. ATS BEGINS PROBE: Pak woman, her Indian lover taken into custody for interrogation
In the wake of their much-hyped cross border ‘love story’, the Noida unit of ATS quizzed both Seema and Sachin.
LUCKNOW The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) on Monday took Pakistani national Seema Ghulam Haider and her Indian lover Sachin Meena into custody for interrogation. In the wake of their much-hyped cross border ‘love story’, the Noida unit of ATS quizzed both Seema and Sachin.
The ATS officials also verified Seema’s ID proof and other related documents. The officials also checked the documents related to her children. Speaking on the development, U.P. Police Special Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, has said that it is just a ‘general inquiry’ of any Pakistan national living here without proper documentation.
Earlier this month, 27-year-old Seema Haider had sneaked into India to live with Greater Noida’s Sachin Meena whom she befriended through an online gaming platform in 2019. Seema, who is a mother of four (all aged below 7 years), traversed through Dubai and Nepal to be with her lover in India. She was accompanied by her children.
However, there is much apprehension that this may be more than just a daring love story. Therefore, authorities are digging into the case to find out if Seema is a spy who may pose a threat to our national security. According to senior police officials, the ATS is checking up on her background, credentials, and intentions behind sneaking into India.
The officials added that the probe was handed over to U.P. ATS as the Gautam Budh Nagar Police Commissionerate wrote a letter to the U.P. Police headquarters in Lucknow to rope in a specialised agency to probe Seema’s case. Confirming the news, ATS Additional Director General (ADG), Naveen Arora, said their team will start its probe into the Seema-Sachin case.
“Seema and Sachin will be interrogated in detail. The duo could be interrogated one by one. They could also be made to sit face-to-face to bring out the truth behind their cross-border lover story,” said a senior ATS official while adding that Seema’s kids will not be quizzed as they are aged below seven years.
There is a probability that she has been sent to India with a possible plot of Pakistan’s secret agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said the official. This comes in the wake of similar honeytraps against Army men, police officials, and para-military personnel as well as scientists sitting in crucial positions.
Earlier, on June 26, the U.P. Police intelligence wing had issued an alert to its police officers and personnel across the state about 14 fake social profiles of women created to honeytrap them as well as officials and personnel of the Indian Army, paramilitary forces, and scientists. He said that this alert was issued after input from a central intelligence agency.
Fake profiles have been created by the Pakistan Intelligence Operative (PIO), a wing of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence), to target officers and personnel of central as well as state agencies involved in internal and external security, he added.
While Seema was arrested on July 4 for illegally entering India without a visa via Nepal with her four children, Sachin was put behind bars for sheltering the illegal immigrants. After remaining five days behind bars, Seema, and Sachin, earlier this month, stepped out of the Luksar Jail in Gautam Budh Nagar on July 10.
When Seema met Sachin
Seema got acquainted with Sachin in 2019 through PUBG. She told HT that she had been with Sachin since March this year when the two married at the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. “I can’t live without Sachin, and because he is my husband, I’ve accepted his religion and culture as my own and changed the names of my four children, who call him Sachin ‘Baba’. Sachin’s parents have also accepted me, and I have adopted all their cultural practices and will continue to live with them,” said Seema.
Talking about how they fell in love, Seema said they began talking to each other in July 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I used to talk to many strangers online while playing PUBG because I kept the mike on. That’s how I met Sachin, and we started chatting on the chat box. We used to play for hours on end and never stopped talking. After about four months, we exchanged phone numbers and began communicating via voice and video calls. We confessed our love for each other by January 2021,” Seema told HT.
According to the couple, they were inspired by the Hindi film Gadar, whose plot revolves around a cross-border love story between an Indian man and a Pakistani woman. Talking to PTI earlier, Seema said that her home is in a neighbourhood of Bhittaiabad a Katchi Abadi in the heart of Gulistan-e-Jauhar and it is a three-room portion in a building devoid of any paint and located in a narrow lane full of garbage and overflowing sewage.
Her previous husband Ghulam Haider works in Saudi Arabia. Her first marriage was also a love marriage. She had eloped with Ghulam Haider to Karachi about 10 years ago. They had gotten married against the wishes of their parents.
