Border Cops Who Checked Bus On Which Pak Woman Entered India Suspended

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the India-Nepal border, suspended an inspector and a jawan for alleged dereliction of duty in checking the bus on which Pakistani national Seema Haider entered India, official sources said on Thursday. She managed to reach Greater Noida near Delhi after illegally entering the country.

Inspector Sujit Kumar Verma and Head Constable Chandra Kamal Kalita of the 43rd Battalion of the SSB were checking the passenger vehicle on May 13 in Siddharth Nagar - a border district in Uttar Pradesh - as it crossed into India from Nepal.

Ms Haider was on this bus along with her four children.

The SSB inspector and the jawan have been suspended, pending a full inquiry, sources said. A full court of inquiry procedure will begin against them and all the aspects of the incident that were not covered during the preliminary investigation will be probed now, besides the role of other personnel on duty that day, they added.

The force had initiated a basic probe after reports of Ms Haider being arrested in Greater Noida surfaced, they said.

SSB officials refused to comment on the development despite repeated attempts.

The SSB, a paramilitary force under the Union Home Ministry, is tasked with guarding the open 1,751-km-long India-Nepal international border.

The sources said it was "humanly impossible" to check and frisk the credentials of each individual crossing into India from Nepal as it is an open border and the nationals of the two countries can travel without a visa.

Nationals from a third country are not allowed to cross this border without a valid visa and travel documents but in the case of people from countries in India's neighbourhood, it becomes very difficult to ascertain who is from where because of similar physical features and mannerisms, they said.

Seema Haider, 30, who is from Pakistan's Sindh province, said that she came to India to live with her lover Sachin Meena (22) in Greater Noida.

While she was arrested on July 4 for illegally entering the country without a visa via Nepal with her four children, all aged below seven years, Mr Meena was jailed for sheltering illegal immigrants.

However, both were granted bail by a local court on July 7 and they have been living together with the woman's children in Greater Noida.

Ms Haider said she does not wish to go back to Pakistan and wants to live with Sachin. She claimed to have converted to Hinduism.

The couple first got in touch in 2019 over the online game PUBG.