Two Kerala nuns granted bail in Chhattisgarh ‘conversion, trafficking’ case
Two Catholic nuns from Kerala, Preethi Merry and Vandana Francis, were arrested along with Sukaman Mandavi at Durg railway station on July 25.
In a significant update in the case involving the arrest of two Kerala nuns, a special court in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, on Saturday granted bail to three persons, including the two nuns, who were booked on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
Amrito Das, the lawyer for the nuns, said, “The judge granted bail observing there was no need to keep them in custody.”
Earlier, the principal district and session Judge (NIA court), Sirajuddin Qureshi, had reserved the order on their bail pleas after a hearing on Friday. Conditional bail was granted to three people in the case, defence lawyer Amrito Das said, according to a report by PTI.
Talking to PTI, petitioner's advocate B Gopakumar also said some bail conditions were also put up, including that, "they will not be able to go abroad, they will have to surrender the passport, they should not influence the witness."
The process of furnishing the bail is now being done, which will take 1-2 hours. Their releasing order is expected to be received in the second half of the day, he said further.
What is the case?
Two Catholic nuns from Kerala, Preethi Merry and Vandana Francis, were arrested along with Sukaman Mandavi at the Durg railway station on July 25. This was done after a complaint was lodged by a local Bajrang Dal functionary accusing them of forcibly converting three young tribal women from Narayanpur and trafficking them.
During the bail hearing on Friday, defence lawyer Das said that the prosecution had not asked for police custody of the three people, and the alleged victims had been sent back to their homes.
Also read: ‘Mob rule going on’: What Shashi Tharoor said on arrest of Kerala nuns in Chhattisgarh
Following the bail hearing on Friday, Das had said that the prosecution had not asked for the trio's custody for interrogation, and the alleged victims had been sent back to their homes. He also pointed out that the alleged victims are all adults practising Christianity.
On Friday, the Public Prosecutor Dauram Chandravanshi opposed the bail application, citing that the case is still in the early stages of investigation.
Political row over Kerala nuns case
Meanwhile, the arrest also sparked a political row with Congress and CPI(M) slamming the move. In Kerala, the state party chief Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that the nuns were arrested based on a “misunderstanding.”
From the ruling side, Chhattisgarh CM Visnu Deo Sai accused the opposition of politicising the matter and interfering with a police investigation in the case. In a social media post, Sai said that the case appears to be one of human trafficking. “Three daughters of Narayanpur were promised nursing training and jobs. A person from Narayanpur handed them over to two nuns at Durg station, who were taking them to Agra,” he added further.
