Chhattisgarh court grants bail to Kerala nuns in alleged forcible religious conversion case

A National Investigation Agency court in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur on Saturday granted bail to two Kerala nuns who were arrested on allegations of human trafficking and religious conversion, The Indian Express reported.

The nuns – Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis – were arrested along with a man identified as Sukhman Mandavi at the Durg railway station on July 25. They were accompanying three women from Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district.

Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of the Raipur Archdiocese, said that the nuns were taking the women to Agra, where they had been offered jobs as kitchen helpers at a convent.

The first information report against the nuns and Mandavi was registered based on a complaint by a member of the Hindutva group Bajrang Dal.

A sessions court in Durg had earlier disposed of their bail petitions, saying that the case falls under the National Investigation Agency Act and should be heard by an NIA court.

The advocate representing the nuns and Mandavi told the NIA court on Friday that the three women were voluntarily travelling with them for a job at their institution, reported Live Law. They also submitted statements from the women’s parents that their daughters had left willingly for work-related purposes.

Their argument was based on the parents’ statements that they had been practising Christianity for years, leaving no grounds for allegations of forcible...

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