With and without the veil: Faiz at Patna police station on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov 5: For 15-year-old schoolboy Faraz (name changed), Faiz from Jamshedpur was the “dream girl” he had never seen but longed to be with. Sana’s sweet female voice on phone kindled romance and craving in the heart of the teenaged Patna boy.

But the dream turned into a nightmare today when Faraz met Faiz in person.

The Class X boy from Patna got the shock of his life when his “love interest” turned out to be a 21-year-old man, clad in black burqa to hide his identity.

Patna police today nabbed the Jamshedpur youth along with the teenager from an autorickshaw near Patna Junction and exposed his real face from behind the veil.

The two youths were taken to Kotwali police station for questioning.

“It is a strange case. The teenaged youth was not aware that the person he was traveling with was a man till the policemen removed the burqa covering the face of the Jamshedpur man,” City central superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande told The Telegraph.

The Jamshedpur boy, Lande said, gave his identity as Faiz to the police and said his father was an employee with Tisco in the Steel City in neighbouring Jharkhand.

Initial interrogation with the duo has yielded that Faiz,who can modulate his voice in a feminine tone, contacted Faraz about two months ago. The sweet voice from the other end regularly charmed Faraz who fell into the trap and started believing Faiz was the “girl of his dreams”.

The duo exchanged several text messages which strengthened their bond over the days and months.

Faiz, executing his “meticulously worked out plan”, came down to Patna today and called Faraz somewhere in Frazer Road area. Even after Faraz met his “beloved”, he failed to make out that Faiz was in fact a man clad in a burqa.

Continuing in the same female voice, Faiz convinced Faraz to board an autorickshaw and left for Mithapur area.

Although the police are still examining the background and other details of the Jamshedpur man, initial findings have led the cops to suspect him on two counts: — he may be a mentally sick person luring teenaged boys or he might be a member of a gang involved in kidnapping teenagers and then ask for ransom.

From Mithapur, the duo came to Patna Junction railway station where they were caught by some traffic policemen.

“His (Faiz’s) movements and gestures made a traffic policeman suspicious and he asked him to remove the veil,” Lande said, adding: “The person turned out to be a male. The teenaged youth was visibly shocked to find his companion to be a man.”

The police contacted Faraz’s parents and handed him over to them after the initial interrogations. But Faiz is still in police custody.

“We are trying to contact the Jamshedpur man’s parents. We will decide about him only after meeting his parents,” policemen at Kotwali police station said.