Mumbai: Men go to great lengths for the woman they love- this has proved to be right in the case of Indian National Hamid Nehal Ansari’s case who sneaked into Pakistan to meet the woman he met on online.
Well, this isn’t some Bollywood movie but a real story of Indian National who got caught up in Pakistan after he went to meet the woman he fell in love with online.
And it was only after the woman for whom he sneaked into Pakistan testified on his behalf in the Pakistani court, the court gave Ansari a chance to return back to his homeland.
Ansari now 33, was arrested in Pakistan in 2012 for illegally entering the country via Afghanistan to meet the woman he befriended online.
He was then held for three years before he was given a three-year jail term by a military court in December 2015 on charges of espionage and possessing fake documents.
“The girl for whom he went to Pakistan actually testified in his favour, that he came to meet her but he was (still) put in jail,” said the external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Thursday.
When External Affairs Minister Swaraj asked Ansari about the story behind him ending up in Pakistan, “He explained that through a twist of circumstances, he fell in love with a girl and in pursuit of that girl, he followed her and landed up in Pakistan.”
“There, he was arrested on suspicion of being a spy. He spent more than the time for which he was sentenced and now he is back.”
The woman for whom Ansari left testified on his behalf in the Pakistani court but it is now known the two had never met in person, HT reports.
They said he decided to travel to Afghanistan and sneak into Pakistan after his application for a Pakistani visa was denied.
“After he was arrested, Ansari was made to sign a paper which had something written on it in a language he didn’t know. It was after this that he was charged with spying,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
“I was worried and unsure if I would ever be able to return home from Pakistan, but eventually when I saw there were a lot of people supporting me, I started praying. My family, the Indian government and Sushma Swaraj helped me a lot,” Ansar said on returning home.
“I want to celebrate with my family, after that I will start looking for a job and only then will I marry and settle down,” Ansari told reporters.
Ansari now a free man said: “I am thinking I will approach Aamir (Khan) for a movie to be made on me.”