Bengaluru: A security guard with a private bank in Bengaluru has been booked under the Foreigners Act for illegally bringing and harbouring a Pakistani woman he met while playing online ludo.
Twenty-five-year-old Mulayam Singh Yadav allegedly smuggled in his friend (now wife) through three countries and then into Bengaluru where the couple had been living.
“While playing an online game of ludo, Yadav and Ikra got acquainted, liked each other and then exchanged mobile numbers. They then decided to get married and he planned to get her into India. He booked a flight from Karachi to Dubai to Kathmandu last September. Then he decided to bring her in from Nepal,” S. Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) told reporters in Bengaluru on Monday.
The police believe Ikra is 19 but her age is yet to be ascertained. They said that Yadav, who is from Uttar Pradesh, and has been living in Bengaluru for the last seven years, forged an Aadhar card which he used to bring Ikra into India from Nepal and move into a new home in Bellandur locality in the eastern side of the city.
Ikra is from Hyderabad in Sindh province of Pakistan and her calls to her mother are what gave her away to security agencies in India, the police said.
“They say that they are married but since it happened illegally, we are carrying out all procedures to deport her,” the police said.
The woman has been detained and handed over to the Foreign Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) that comes under the Bureau of Immigration. Yadav is in jail and the police are probing the case.
Girish said that there was no trace of suspicious activity in the initial investigations but further probe is underway.
With employment and education opportunities, Bengaluru attracts people from all across the country and globe. In January 2020, civic authorities had razed several shanties in Kariyammana Agrahara of Bellandur that allegedly belonged to ‘illegal immigrants from Bangladesh’.
“Few people have taken shelter under illegally constructed sheds located in Kariyammana Agrahara of Bellanduru which is within the jurisdiction of our Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. Illegal activities were taking place in those Sheds and the environment was spoiled without cleanliness, hence the area was a site of illegal activity,” Arvind Limbavali, the BJP legislator from Mahadevapura in Bengaluru had tweeted back then.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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