Chhattisgarh: Nuns get bail after being arrested for ‘forced conversions’

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.

Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis had been arrested along with a man identified as Sukhman Mandavi at the Durg railway station on July 25. They were accompanied by 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.

They had been arrested and a first information report filed against them after being accosted by members of the Bajrang Dal Hindutva group on the platform.

A sessions court in Durg had earlier disposed of their bail petitions, saying that the case falls under the jurisdiction of 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 parents reiterated that they had been practising Christianity for many years, leaving no grounds for allegations of forcible...

Read more