Indian woman used fake passport to visit Pakistani lover she befriended on Instagram, case registered

In a cross-border love story gone awry, police in India have registered a case against an Indian woman who created fake documents in order to visit a man who she befriended over Instagram. The case was filed this week against a 23-year-old woman from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh who lives in the western city of Thane.

The whole incident happened between May 2023 and 2024, according to police.

The woman, identified as Sanam Khan, has been taken into custody, the Indian news agency ANI reported, but other reports said that arrests are yet to be made.

The woman, who is married, had gone to Pakistan last year with her two children and reportedly marriedher Instagram lover.She had initially gone on a one-month visa, and wanted to stay on for another six months, for which she filed an application with the Indian authorities. The application was rejected and at the same time, she came under lens of Indian security agencies.

It emerged that she had made a fake Aadhaar card (the Indian identity document) anda PAN card (used for taxation and identity purposes). She also forged the birth certificate and got a passport under a fake name.

She managed to pass police verification for passport using the forged documents and travelled to Pakistan in October last year, according to police.

She stayed in Pakistan for nearly two months and returned.

The mother of two girls had gone to live in Thane with her mother, after suffering abuse from her husband. Khan told police she faked her identity as she was afraid of her husband's wrath.

The woman told police that she became friends with the Pakistani man over Instagram. The friendship progressed into love, and they decided to marry. For that, shevisited the Pakistani man in Abbottabad city near Pakistani capital Islamabad.

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Police are probing the nature of their relationship further.

Earlier, the Indian high commission had alerted central agencies about the woman when she applied for visa extension. The agencies started a probe and concluded that all documents she had used to get her passport were fake.

But the findings came only after she returned to India last November after her mother fell sick.

The police also booked a businessman from the city who helped the woman make forged documents.

(With inputs from agencies)