A 22-year-old Bangladeshi woman swam across the border across the Sunderbans to marry her boyfriend from West Bengal, India. Krishna Mandal, 22, crossed the Indo-Bangladeshi border to meet her Facebook boyfriend Abhik Mandal out of the love that bloomed online.
The two decided to marry each other. However, as Abhik Mandal did not have a passport or any means to reach Bangladesh, it was Krishna Mandal who chose to cross the border illegally. Krishna started off by walking alone through the Sundarbans. She dared the jungle through the endangered passage of the Bengal tigers. The young woman then swam across the Malta river to reach her destination.
After about an hour, Mandal entered the village of Kaikhali in the southern 24 Parganas district of the state. She finally met her online love Abhik Mandal, a resident of Rania in Narendrapur. Mandal had brought a car with him after which they went to Kalighat temple in Kolkata. In the temple, the couple tied a knot in the temple and soon the story of Krishna Mandal’s bravery spread among the people.
Soon the news of a young woman entering India illegally reached to the Police. After this, the Narendrapur Police raided Rania on Monday and the woman was arrested on charges of illegally entering India. According to the sources, the woman may be handed over to the Bangladesh High Commission.
In a similar incident in 2021, a 24-year-old resident from Ballavpur village in Nadia, West Bengal travelled across the country to meet his 18-year-old lover from Nerail, Bangladesh. The Border Security Force (BSF) arrested the couple, who had met each other online, in West Bengal’s Nadia district for illegally crossing the international border.