Dilruba Sharmi, a 32-year-old mother-of-three from Bangladesh, arrived in India on September 26 along with with her three children to meet- UP resident Abdul Kareem.

Shravasti (UP): In a rerun of the famous Seema Haider case, a Bangladeshi mother-of-three arrived in Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh to meet she met and fell in love with over the internet, however, disappointment and heartbreak awaited her upon arrival as she found out that man was already married.

The woman, Dilruba Sharmi, a 32-year-old mother-of-three from Bangladesh, arrived in India on September 26 along with with her three children to meet 27-year-old Abdul Kareem, a resident of Bhartha Roshangarh village in the district’s Malhipur area, police said.

They said that Sharmi, a widow who worked as a beautician, met Abdul Kareem on the internet and the duo soon fell in love. Kareem works as a chef in Bahrain. Sharmi’s husband had died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Giving details, an official said that Dilruba, along with her three children– aged 15, 12 and seven– arrived in Lucknow on September 26 on tourist visa.

On the same day, Kareem also landed in Uttar Pradesh capital and the five of them then boarded a bus and reached Bahraich where they stayed in a hotel for two days before Kareem’s native village, the official said.

However, Kareem, who had told Sharmi that he was unmarried, was confronted by his wife and villagers informed the police and Sashastra Seema Bal officials.

Security agencies also swung into action and launched an inquiry. Following this, Dilruba Sharmi decided to return to her country.

Malhipur SHO Dharmendra Kumar told news agency PTI that the woman came to India on a tourist visa and police did not find any criminal angle in her arrival into the country.

“No criminal angle was found in the probe. Her tourist visa was valid. She returned to Lucknow on Saturday and probably left for Bangladesh from there. Kareem also left, saying he was going back to Bahrain,” he said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar Yadav said officials from the Intelligence Bureau, Sashastra Seema Bal and the Anti Terrorist Squad interrogated both Sharmi and Kareem and found nothing suspicious.

The woman left on her own, saying she would return to her country, he added.

The Seema Haider story

The incident bears similarities to the famous case of  Seema Haider, a Pakistani mother-of-four, who illegally crossed into India along with her kids, and married her lover Sachin Meena in Uttar Pradesh.

Seema Ghulam Haider, a Pakistani woman who was married to Ghulam Haider and mother of four kids, met Sachin Meena—a Uttar Pradesh resident— in 2019 while playing popular shooter PUBG. Over time, the duo became friends and fell in love and earlier this year, Seema Haider entered illegally into India via Nepal along with her four children to be with her lover.

Sachin and Seema reportedly got married at a temple in Nepal. Currently, the cross-border lovebirds are living happily together at Sachin’s Greater Noida home.

Later, a similar case came to light from Rajasthan, when Anju, a 35-year-old Indian mother of two, travelled legally to Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to marry her lover, Nasrullah (29), whom she befriended and fell in love on social media site Facebook in 2019.

(With PTI inputs)