Kerala nuns released from Chhattisgarh jail after bail in trafficking case

Two Kerala nuns, arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced conversion, were granted bail by a Chhattisgarh court. The women they were accused of trafficking have now approached police to file an FIR against Bajrang Dal members for assault and coercion

Durg: Two nuns from Kerala who were arrested on the charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion were released from Durg Central Jail in Chhattisgarh after a special court granted them bail on Saturday.

Catholic nuns Preethy Mary and Vandana Francis were received outside the jail by several leaders from Kerala, including LDF MPs and Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

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Elsewhere, the alleged victims of `trafficking’ approached Narayanpur police in Chhattisgarh to lodge a complaint against Bajrang Dal activists.

Earlier in the day, the special court of Principal District and Sessions Judge (NIA court) 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. The detailed order was yet to be made available.

The trio were arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) 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 of the nuns 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 development, chief minister Sai 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 — reached the office of the Superintendent of Police in Narayanpur district seeking to register an FIR against Bajrang Dal activists for allegedly assaulting them and forcing them to give false statements against the nuns.