NEW DELHI: Mulayam Singh Yadav is a name associated with the late former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He was a staunch opponent of the Hindu right.

Now the Bengaluru police have arrested a young man with the same name, from the same state, accusing him of bringing an alleged Pakistani girl to India after befriending her in an online game of Ludo.

Reports on Wednesday quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police, Whitefield, S. Girish as saying that Mulayam Singh Yadav came in contact with the minor girl in Pakistan’s Hyderabad through the online game. The man asked the girl to come to Bengaluru so they could get married.

The Bengaluru police on Monday said they have arrested the 26-year-old man for illegally bringing the girl to India and living with her in the city. The accused, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was working as a security guard in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru is the capital of Karnataka state where the Bharatiya Janata Party rules after subverting an opposition government with defection. Assembly elections are due there later this year.

A name like Yadav with a strange Pakistani link can produce a useful electoral ploy in a polarising campaign.

Mr Girish said Singh came in contact with the minor girl through the online game. “The man used to work as a security guard at a private firm and used to play Ludo online.

Last year, he came in contact with a minor girl. Recently, he asked his Pakistani girlfriend to come to Bengaluru so they could get married. They made a plan to bring her over to India through Nepal in September 2022,“ the DCP said.

The couple was living in the labourer quarters at Bellandur police station limits. “She has been handed over to the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) and a case has been filed against the man. He has been arrested,” the DCP said.

An FIR has been registered under Section 7 of the Foreigners Act against Govinda Reddy, the owner of the property where the couple was staying, for failing to inform police about the alleged foreigner staying illegally in his building. Singh has been booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 495 (concealing marriage), 468 (forgery) and 471 (forging documents) of the Indian Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2023