Noida: India's Sachin Meena and Pakistan's Seema Haider are looking to start a new chapter as they walk out of prison in New Delhi on a rain-soaked day after getting bail.
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.
"My husband is a Hindu, so I am a Hindu. I feel I am an Indian now," Seema told NDTV.
The couple's love story is as intriguing as a Bollywood movie. They got in touch during the Covid pandemic while playing the online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).
They fell in love on the app, which led to Seema, 30, and Sachin, 25, getting married in Nepal in March this year. This was their first meeting.
"It was such a long and gruelling journey. I was very scared too. I first went from Karachi to Dubai, where we waited for 11 hours and couldn't sleep. We then flew to Nepal, before finally taking the road to Pokhara, where I met Sachin," Seema says.
She then went back to Pakistan and Sachin returned to India. Back home, Seema, who claimed discord with her husband, sold a plot for Pakistani rupees 12 lakh and arranged flight tickets and a Nepal visa for herself and her four children.
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, officials said.
The cross-border love story hit a dead-end as they were arrested on July 4 and put in jail. While Seema was charged with illegally entering India, Sachin was booked for sheltering the illegal immigrant.
Yesterday, Seema was granted bail and will now focus on the paperwork to make her move to India official.
Talking about her release, Seema says, "I shouted in joy when I heard the news. I had thought that I would be in jail for months."
In a video message from Saudi Arabia, Seema's husband Ghulam Haider urged the Indian government to help him reunite with his wife. However, Seema told reporters that she did not wish to go back to Ghulam Haider and claimed a threat to her life if she returns to Pakistan.