‘Want to live in peace’: Released from jail on bail, Indo-Pak couple seeks govt support

She added, “We then decided that I would come to India via Nepal. I booked tickets for May 10 on a 4 pm flight. But just a day before I left, (former Pakistan Prime Minister) Imran Khan was arrested… There was no network and I could not reach Sachin…”

Seema managed to reach Nepal from Karachi, from where she and her kids boarded a bus to Delhi. En route, she asked passersby to share their hotspot so she could be in contact with Sachin via WhatsApp.

She said Sachin told her he would “accept the children” if she brought them along. “Without them, I may not have been able to come, I am their only support,” she said.

Sachin added: “We have faced a lot — from Pakistan to jail in India. We want to live in peace.”

Sachin’s family is now planning a wedding as per local customs. Said Sachin’s father Netrapal Singh, who sells plants in colonies of Greater Noida, “We accept their relationship… we cannot let Seema go back, she will never be safe in Pakistan… We are a very poor family. I request the government for help in providing support to the couple and their children.”

Granting bail to the trio, Justice Nazim Akbar, Jewar Civil Judge (Junior Division), had said in the order: “It has been stated on behalf of the advocate of the accused that no offence has been committed… Along with the applicant, her four children are also in jail, whose age is six years and below. There is no one to take care of them except the applicant. Due to ignorance by the applicant, she crossed India’s borders. The applicant has not entered the borders of India with any wrong intention. Rather, she has come for the purpose of settling down with co-accused Sachin Meena due to her love/friendship.”

The court said the case is punishable with imprisonment up to five years, so in light of orders of the Supreme Court and the guidelines of the Allahabad High Court, the bail application is eligible to be accepted.

Meanwhile, Seema’s first husband, who is working in Saudi Arabia, said he wants his wife and children safely back in Pakistan and even appealed to Prime Minister Narendra

Modi to ensure their return. He also claimed he and Seema were not divorced — which Seema denied. “He used to fight with me a lot and threatened divorce. I was forced to marry him,” she said.

While the future remains uncertain, Seema is content for now. Her love for Sachin, meanwhile, led her to find another love — songs from the Bollywood hit Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. “I made Instagram videos of those songs — 813 of them, all for Sachin,” she said sheepishly.