An NIA court on August 2 granted bail to the two Catholic nuns from Kerala, Vandana Francis and Preethi Mary, and a tribal man named Sukhman Mandavi arrested in Chhattisgarh on charges of religious conversion and human trafficking.
The nuns, members of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), and Mandavi, a resident of Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh, had been accused of converting and trafficking three tribal women aged between 19 and 22. They were arrested on July 25. The charges mentioned in the FIR registered against them include unlawful religious conversions under Section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act, 1968, and human trafficking under Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
According to a reports, Sukhman and the three women — his sister Sukhmati Mandavi, Lalita Usendi and Kamaleswari Pradhan — reached Durg railway station on July 25, where the two nuns were to meet them. When a platform ticket examiner was asking for their tickets, the nuns arrived and told the ticket examiner that they had the tickets. Around this time, members of the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), arrived at the location in large numbers, reportedly after receiving a call from the ticket checker. Ultimately, the nuns, the man and the three women were detained by the railway police, and an FIR was filed, allegedly on the insistence of the Bajrang Dal workers. The three women were later moved to a government-run shelter, while Sisters Francis and Mary, and Sukhman Mandavi were arrested. While rejecting the trio’s bail plea on July 30, a sessions court had transferred the hearing of the case to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Bilaspur.
It should be noted that the initial FIR (copy attached below) did not include charges of religious conversion, and only mentioned Section 143. It is to be noted that multiple sources, including the families of the three tribal women, have confirmed that they were Christians, so there was no question of conversion.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.