The Pakistani woman and her Indian partner, who were arrested in connection with her illegal stay in India, were on Friday granted bail by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida that also asked them not to change their address till the next order.

After her release on Saturday, Seema Haidar told reporters: “We started chatting on phone in 2020 and later decided to live together. I am a Hindu by heart and want to marry Sachin Meena.”

A married woman with four children, Seema, 32, is a resident of Karachi. She had entered India through the Nepal border on May 13 and started living with Sachin, 28, at Ambedkarnagar in Rabupur in Greater Noida.

When Uttar Pradesh police came to know about the presence of a Pakistani woman and her children in India, all six of them fled to Ballabhgarh in Haryana from where they were arrested last month. The police also nabbed Sachin’s father Netra Pal and sent him to jail along with the couple. The court had allowed Seema to keep her four children with her in the district jail.

Hemant Krishna Parashar, counsel for Seema and Sachin, said: “They came to know each other while playing PUBG on their mobile phones. They met in Kathmandu and got married in Pashupatinath temple in March this year. Jewar civil court junior division judge Nazim Akbar granted them bail on Friday and asked them not to leave their Rabupur house.”

Seema was arrested for entering India illegally while the others were held for helping her. Later, the police had added several sections of The Passport Act, 1967 because she had a passport to travel to Saudi Arabia but reached India. A forgery case was also filed against all of them for procuring Aadhaar cards for Seema and two of her children. All her children are between the ages of three and eight.

The police had quoted Seema as saying that she was married to Ghulam Haidar Jakhrani of Karachi, a mason and an auto-rickshaw driver. He used to misbehave with her. Ghulam had left for Saudi Arabia two years ago to work there.

“Finally Ghulam decided that she would also shift to Saudi Arabia to live with him but she reached India along with her children because Sachin promised her that he would take care of all five. Initially, Netra Pal opposed them but finally bowed before his son’s wish and started helping them,” said a police officer who didn’t wish to be identified.

“We were sympathetic towards them right from the beginning but took action because the media was showing that a woman agent of the ISI had entered India and living somewhere in New Delhi”, the officer added.