New Delhi, Aug. 2 -- Two nuns from Kerala and another person, accused of human trafficking and forced conversion, were released from Durg Central Jail in Chhattisgarh on Saturday after a court granted them bail, holding that the case was based on "mere suspicion". Leaders of the Congress and ruling LDF in Kerala welcomed the news, and accused the BJP of ignoring the atrocities against minorities in the states ruled by it while championing their cause in the southern state. Archbishop of Trichur Andrews Thazhath, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, said the "false case" against the two women should be withdrawn. Catholic nuns were received outside the jail in Durg by several leaders from their home state, including LDF MPs and Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and also Congress leaders including former MLA from Durg, Arun Vora. The nuns left the place with Chandrashekhar in a vehicle. Earlier, LDF MPs and some members of the Christian community were seen sharing sweets outside the jail after receiving the news of bail order. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) shared a picture on its Facebook account with the message "LDF MPs John Brittas, Jose K Mani, and P Santhosh Kumar celebrate the bail order with the brother of the one of the nuns outside Durg Central jail".
Elsewhere, the alleged victims of 'trafficking' approached Narayanpur police in Chhattisgarh to lodge a complaint against Bajrang Dal activists. In the morning, the court of Special Judge (NIA Act) Sirajuddin Qureshi at Bilaspur granted bail to the two nuns along with co-accused Sukaman Mandavi on the condition that they surrender their passports and not leave the country. They were also asked to submit a bond of Rs 50,000 each with two sureties and cooperate with the probe, defence lawyer Amrito Das said. "It transpires from the Case Diary that the registration of the FIR is primarily based on a mere apprehension and suspicion of commission of an offence by the accused. In the arrest memo of the accused persons, no previous record of their criminal history has been annexed," said the court.
The parents of the three alleged victims of trafficking filed affidavits stating that the accused had not offered any inducement to their daughters or forced them to convert. Of the three alleged victims -- all of them major -- two told police that they have been following Christianity since childhood, the judge pointed out. The two nuns and another person were arrested by the Government Railway Police at the Durg railway station on July 25, following a complaint from a local Bajrang Dal functionary, who accused them of forcibly converting three girls from Narayanpur and trafficking them. The arrest sparked off a political slugfest with the Congress and CPI(M) criticising the police action and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai accusing them of politicising the issue. Reacting to the bail, chief minister Sai on Saturday said, "It was a legal procedure, and bail has been granted in it." Meanwhile, the three young women from Narayanpur -- who it had been alleged were being trafficked -- submitted a complaint at the office of the Superintendent of Police in Narayanpur seeking to register an FIR against Bajrang Dal activists for allegedly assaulting them and forcing them to give false statements against the nuns. In Kerala, the ruling LDF, the opposition UDF and a prominent catholic body welcomed the court's order.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.