How PubG encounter sparked cross-border ‘prem katha’

It’s 11am on a Saturday. A rain-stained mint-green home stands out in the narrow by-lanes of the mofussil town of Rabupura, just off Greater Noida on the outskirts of the Capital. Around it are a cacophony of people, mostly adolescent boys and young men, straining to peer into the open front door.

A young man and a woman are sitting on plastic chairs, fawning over each other, while four children are hovering around, doing what children do. It is all very ordinary. It is all very domestic. Yet, the crowd is giggling as it ogles, the low hum of clandestine whispers incessant as it gazes at the not-so-ordinary couple in front of it.

For Seema Ghulam Haider is from Pakistan, and her scarcely believable path to Sachin Meena’s home and hearth passes through Karachi, Nepal, Delhi, and three days in an Uttar Pradesh jail.

On July 4, the Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested Haider for illegally entering India through Nepal with her four children, all below the age of seven. Sachin, the man she ostensibly made the journey for, and his father Netrapal Singh, were both jailed the same day for sheltering illegal immigrants. Singh was given bail by a Surajpur district court on July 6, while Sachin and Seema secured bail on July 7.

At 8.30am on July 8, Seema and Sachin stepped out of the Luksar jail, where Sachin’s older brother was waiting in a Hyundai Santro car. The couple and the woman’s four children all clambered in, and arrived at the Meenas’ Rabupura home. Since then, they have been the centre of attention. Some of the onlookers are supportive; others sceptical. In Pakistan, Seema is seen by many as a traitor; in Rabupura, most people are encouraging but hesitant.

THE BEGINNINGS

From Rind Hajano in Khairpur Mir in southern Pakistan, Seema, now 27, always thought life in her village was too limited. “I was the second of three sisters, and everyone would say I’m the prettiest. My village had no school, but a ‘Baaji’ (teacher, literally elder sister) would come home to give us tuitions. I learnt to read and write, but I was always fond of dancing and music,” Seema said. One of her elder brothers, she said, is in the Pakistan Army.

Her mother died when she was 12, and soon she was fighting the pressure to get married. At 17, she fell in love with a cousin. “My family found out, and forcefully married me off to Ghulam Haider Jakhrani in 2014,” she said.

This version of events is contested by Jakhrani. Speaking to HT over the phone from Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where he now lives, he said that the two fell in love and Seema eloped to marry him. An ostensible copy of their marriage affidavit, provided to HT by Jakhrani, dated February 15, 2014, states that Seema left her home 10 days previously with three pieces of clothing, and was entering the contract of marriage with him.

Confronted by her husband’s comments, Seema’s eyes flashed in anger: “Do not believe him!”

Jakhrani and Seema moved to Karachi after their wedding. “My husband would leave for work early in the morning, and in the meantime, I would spend time with friends in the colony. My father and sisters moved close by,” Seema said. She gave birth to her first child, Farhan, in 2016 following which three daughters — Farwa, Fariha and Farah — were born.

In 2019, Jakhrani left for Saudi Arabia to work, and Seema was left alone at home. Most of her day was spent taking care of Farah, her youngest, but she was quickly bored. In March 2020, the pandemic struck, and she was no longer able to meet her father or sisters. That’s when she turned to technology. “I began watching TikTok for hours and used to make videos. There was a sense of creative escape,” she said.

TECH ESCAPE

In August 2020, like millions across the globe, Seema began to play PubG, a free-to-play online shooter game, on her phone. “A lot of people in my Karachi neighbourhood turned to games. I first played Candy Crush, and then began playing PubG,” she said. The online multiplayer nature of PubG meant she was speaking to people from all over the world. There were two boys from Agra, who would call her “didi”, and another girl from Bihar.

PubG, incidentally is banned in India, but is often played using virtual private networks (VPN) that hide the user’s credentials.

In September 2020, Seema, or “FarhanJaan2010” met “noo_more_game_over”. They played with their microphones on, speaking to each other, and then began exchanging messages in the game chat.

On the other side, thousands of kilometres and a hostile border away, was 17-year-old Sachin. He worked at a local department store, but lost his job after Covid, and like many young men around him, had both time and a smartphone. “Gaming was my escape from real life,” he said.

They played for about three hours a day, and by October, had exchanged phone numbers. “We started talking over WhatsApp. I would tell her not to hang up even when she slept, and we would both retire with the video call on. She introduced me to all her children, who began calling me “Baba”. I told my younger brother about her, and when she couldn’t get in touch with me, she would call him,” Sachin said.

Then, they went public, in a manner of speaking.

Her username on PubG became “Sathi_Meena”; his “Seema_Sachin.” He was possessive. She once missed a call from him. Jealous, he blocked her from all his social media accounts. On Saturday, she lifted her left wrist to show the scars that linger. “I hurt myself to apologise to him,” she said. Only when Sachin’s brother showed him photographs did he unblock and forgive her.

RUNAWAY PLAN

In December 2022, Seema’s father died. She cried for days. “I wanted to meet and comfort her,” said Sachin. Their connection became an obsession. They talked about the film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), a love story between an Indian man and a Pakistani woman, and their difficult journey to each other despite the odds. In February 2023, Seema applied for an Indian visa, but among the documents required was the signature of a gazetted officer. There was no way to procure it without drawing attention, so the plan was abandoned.

Instead, they decided to meet in Nepal.

On March 8, Sachin took a 30-hour bus from the Kashmere Gate ISBT to Kathmandu for ₹2,500, while Seema flew to Kathmandu via Sharjah. By March 10, they were both in the same city. Among the first things they did, was watch Gadar. “On March 11, we went to the Pashupatinath Temple and got married with Hindu rituals,” Sachin said.

For a week, they walked the streets of Kathmandu like a married couple; her in Indian clothes with sindoor on her forehead, and uploaded videos on Instagram. “I could not wait to be in India and be with Sachin forever,” she said.

On returning to Karachi, Seema hired a travel agent. “I sold a house that my husband had bought in my name in Karachi for PKR 12 lakh, and bought the tickets to Kathmandu via UAE again,” she said. At 10am on May 10, she left her Karachi home, with a one bag of luggage and four young children in tow, and took an auto-rickshaw to the Jinnah International Airport.

The nervousness was building. She was afraid, not just of getting caught, but that her children would be taken away from her. From Kathmandu, she took a van to Pokhara, and then booked four tickets in a private bus to Delhi for NPR 15,000.

On the bus, the conductor asked Seema for her credentials. Just like they had practised, she told him that her name was Seema, and that her husband’s name was Sachin Meena, who lives in Rabupura. She told the conductor the names of her four children were Raj, Priyanka, Pari, and Munni. “I told the conductor that my husband is a Thakur and I am Thakurain,” she said. It worked, and he asked no further questions. Once in Delhi, she took a bus from Kashmere Gate to Jewar, where at the Faleda crossing in Rabupura, Sachin was waiting.

THE DISCOVERY

Back home in Rabupura, Sachin had been preparing for this moment. In April, he rented a room, for ₹2,500 a month, in Ambedkar Nagar colony, a kilometre away from his family home. Giresh Singh, the landlord, initially had reservations. “I did not know him personally, but knew that he worked at the local grocers’ shop. I told him that I do not rent out to bachelors. But he said he had married a woman in court,” Singh said.

On May 13, when Seema reached Rabupura, he brought her and the children straight to the room. “He told me she was from Bulandshahr and her parents were dead. They said the children were their own. I did not quite believe them, but I did not pry,” Singh said.

For the next month-and-a-half, Sachin, who by this time had regained his job at the grocery store, spent his days working, evenings at his father’s home, and nights at Ambedkar Nagar.

Seema, meanwhile, made friends easily, and began creating Instagram reels with them too. “I did not step out much but would often go to the terrace where I met other women from the colony. No one suspected me because I dressed like any other Indian woman,” she said. But she began to worry about the children’s education and asked Sachin to arrange for an “Indian identity”.

On June 29, the couple went to an advocate in Bulandshahr who promised to help. He told them to go home, and be “tension-free”. Speaking to HT on the condition of anonymity, the advocate said he was stunned to see a Pakistani passport among her documents. “Sachin told me he wanted to marry a Muslim girl. I told them that was no issue under the Special Marriage Act. But I was perplexed to see a Pakistani passport and identity cards,” he said.

He decided to call the police.

On June 30, a team from the local Rabupura police station entered the narrow lanes of the Ambedkar Nagar colony. A friend in the police had tipped Sachin off, and they’d already left, all six of them, on a bus to Palwal. “But when we reached Ballabgarh, the police boarded and took us into custody,” Seema said.

After two days of questioning, Sachin, Seema and Netrapal Singh were arrested under sections of the Passport (Entry into India) Act and the Foreigners’ Act. The children stayed with Seema in jail. A day later, their advocate Hamant Parashar applied for bail. “The Jewar Civil Court junior division judge Nazim Akbar granted bail to Sachin’s father Netrapal on Thursday, and Sachin and Seema on Friday. They were asked not to change their address and not to leave the country,” he said.

Saad Miyan Khan, deputy commissioner of police (Greater Noida) said that central agencies and the Uttar Pradesh anti-terror squad have been alerted about the case. “We have also communicated with the Bureau of Immigration to inform the woman’s family and the statements of Seema, Sachin and his father are being corroborated,” said Khan.

Khan also said that investigations have thus far not revealed anything that suggest espionage, but added that no “clean chit” has been given either. “The matter is still being investigated.”

Anand Kulkarni, additional commissioner of police (law and order), said that the question of deportation would only be addressed once there is a judicial pronouncement. “We do not, at this stage, plan to go to Nepal or Pakistan for investigations,” Kulkarni said.

THE REUNION

On Saturday morning, 29 year-old Balram Singh was one of the many Rabupura residents who stood next to the Meena home watching the preening couple. “When there are two children in love, who are we to say anything? There is no tension in the village,” Singh.

Villagers admit that they had misgivings, but those were addressed by Netrapal Singh. “When he got bail on Thursday and came home, the village elders spoke to him. He told them that the woman has come all the way from Pakistan along with her four children, and is harmless,” said Thakur Bhim Singh, 80.

Jewar BJP MLA Dhirendra Singh, who also belongs to Rabupura, said that the government would look to provide Seema asylum if she so desires — once intelligence agencies give her a “clean chit”. “The people of Rabupura are warm and welcoming, and never have discriminated against anyone. I am proud that the kasba (hamlet) has accepted the woman.” he said.

Across the border, in the Bhittai Abad locality in Karachi, the disappearance of a local woman is all anyone can talk about. Speaking to HT over the phone, Manzoor Hussain, Seema’s Karachi landlord said, “We wonder why she would do this. She was known to everyone in the colony and her kids used to play with the local children every evening.”

There have been threats on social media by gun toting men, asking for India to “return Seema”.

Mukesh Ropeta, a journalist from Jacobabad, from where Jakhrani is, said, “People talk about how a Jakhrani daughter-in-law had the audacity not just to speak to another man, but actually take her four children across the border to marry him.”

Back in Rabupura, Seema agrees. “They will kill me if I return. I will do as the government wants, but please do not send me back.”