New Delhi: A Hyderabad-based software engineer, who was arrested by Pakistan’s Bahawalpur police two years ago for illegally entering their country, was repatriated through the Attari-Wagah border on May 31.
The techie, Vaindam Prashanth (31), along with Durmi Lal, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh, was arrested in the Cholistan desert area in Bahawalpur, Punjab province on November 14, 2019. The Bahawalpur police registered an FIR against them under Pakistan (Control of Entry) Act and since then he was in their custody.
They had crossed the border without any identification papers and proper documents, such as a valid visa and passport, the authorities.
At that time the Pakistani authorities suspected that he was a ‘spy’, but later they believed his version of the story that he was trying to cross the Pakistani border to reach Switzerland to meet his online girlfriend. Prashanth surfaced in Pakistan after having gone missing for two years.
Two years ago when he left for office and did not return home, his father Babu Rao lodged a complaint with the Madhapur police of Cyberabad and a man missing case was registered on April 11.
Later when his whereabouts were known, after a video of Prashanth from Pakistan went viral on the internet, his father approached Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar, who wrote to the State government and Ministry of External Affairs seeking his extradition from Pakistan.
