Amorous standoff in Bareilly leaves parents, police stumped

In yet another example of the extent to which social media can influence and change lives, a young boy from the western UP district of Bareilly is ready to abandon his real parents because he now wants to spend the rest of his life with his 'Facebook mom' who has come down from Bahrain to take him away.

While the distressed parents are helplessly trying to convince their mulish child to see the light of reason, the BJP is looking at the dramatic episode with glasses tinted with its latest bogey of 'love jihad'. The local police, meanwhile, are non-plussed, knowing not what to do as, understandably, this is the first case of its kind for them.

"I just hope my parents understand my mental state and let me go," says Vijay alias Jeetu Maurya (20), a student, who fondly calls the woman from Kerala his 'Facebook mom'. "I don't want things to get ugly. I am sure this will be sorted out soon," he tells reporters who quiz him on his proposed flight of fancy.

The drama went into overdrive when the 'Facebook mom' arrived in Bareilly on Saturday to take her net son's custody. While Vijay welcomed her at his house with open arms, his parents were furious and drove her away. However, she is staying put in Bareilly for the time being.

The story started some months ago when Vijay came into contact with the nurse from Kerala (working in Bahrain) on Facebook by chance. They started chatting and soon she "adopted" him and started doting on him as her son. Vijay was equally in love with his new-found net mom and they used to talk for hours on the internet.

"I had been noticing for some time that he was spending hours and hours on the internet. But I thought it was normal with youngsters nowadays. I could never imagine that he had found a new mother on the internet," laments Vijay's father Brijesh Maurya. "We have been trying to reason it out with him but he is just not ready to listen," he said.

Last month, Vijay had gone missing for almost a month. The parents had reported the matter to the police but they couldn't trace him. When he returned, he told them that he had gone to Trivandrum to spend time with his 'Facebook mom'. In the meantime, the police discovered that cash transfers of over Rs20,000 had been made into Vijay's account in several instalments.

The police are in a fix over how to handle the case. "We are keeping a watch on the matter," is all that the Deputy SP of the Local Intelligence Unit would say to persistent queries from reporters.

Meanwhile, the BJP has taken the opportunity to rake up its favorite 'love jihad' theory. "We will fight against this conspiracy of getting a Hindu boy converted to Christianity. All this show of motherly love is nothing but drama," says local BJP leader RK Sharma. BJP workers are in touch with the parents assuring them of all help, and are also reported to be mounting pressure on the police to thwart the net mom's alleged designs.