UP Man Jailed in Pakistan After Crossing Border to Marry Facebook Lover; Family Appeals to PM Modi

UP Man Jailed in Pakistan: A 21-year-old man from Aligarh Uttar Pradesh is behind bars in Pakistan after his relationship with a female from across the border illegally into Pakistan he wanted to marry.

Badal Babu was arrested on December 28 in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province (some 240 km from Lahore). Babu, who was in his 20s, crossed the border to meet the Facebook friend with whom he wanted to marry.

Pakistan Police have recorded the statement of Babu's Facebook friend Sana Rani, 21, who said she wasn't interested in marrying him.

"In her statement to police, Sana Rani says that Babu and she have been friends on Facebook for the last two-and-a-half years. But she is not interested in marrying him," a Punjab police officer, Nasir Shah, told PTI on Thursday.

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He said Babu illegally crossed the border and reached Sana Rani's Maung village in Mandi Bahauddin, where law enforcers arrested him.

Babu, booked under Sections 13 and 14 of Pakistan’s Foreigners Act, 1946, was presented in court, which remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days. He is scheduled to appear in court next on January 10.

The 30-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh recently landed in jail in Pakistan after crossing the border illegally to meet his Facebook lover and marry her.

Babu’s family members, who were told that he was working in Delhi, are in shock after finding out about his arrest in Pakistan, and has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and facilitate his release, reported PTI.

“We want our son back but don’t know how to bring him home. We are calling on the prime minister to help us,” Babu’s mother was quoted as saying by PTI.

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“He was a simple boy. He never did anything like this before,” she added.

“We couldn’t believe it. For us, till this moment we knew that he was working in Delhi, but the next moment we are shocked to discover that he’s in a Pakistani jail. It’s like something out of a movie,” said Babu’s father Kirpal Singh, who lives in Khitkari village under Barla police station area.

Babu, who left his village in August, reassured his parents during Diwali that he was safe and had found a job. And now, they hear he is languishing in a Pakistani jail.

Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Rural) Amrit Jain confirmed that they had received a memorandum from the family and would be taking the matter up with the Ministry of External Affairs.

"We will approach the proper channels to provide assistance and work towards establishing contact with Babu. Our primary goal is to secure his release from custody in Pakistan," Jain said in a statement.

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