A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district on Saturday granted bail to three persons, including two nuns from Kerala, who were arrested on July 25 over allegations of human trafficking and forceful religious conversion.
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Amrito Das, the lawyer for the nuns, said, “The judge granted bail observing there was no need to keep them in custody.”
The nuns, Preeti Marry and Vandana Francis, and another person, Sukhman Mandavi, were arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Durg railway station on July 25 after a complaint was filed by workers of a right-wing outfit. The complaint alleged that they forcibly converted three women from Narayanpur and were attempting to traffic them.
The three women who were allegedly being trafficked were sent to a shelter home for three days and later sent back home.
The lawyers of the three who were arrested had applied for bail in the sessions court earlier this week, but the judge rejected it, citing the human trafficking charge and observing that the case could be tried by an NIA court.
On Friday, the matter was heard by Principal District and Sessions Judge (NIA court) Sirajuddin Qureshi, who had reserved the order until Saturday.
Das, the nuns’ lawyer, had told The Indian Express, “Our prime thrust was that the three women’s parents clearly said they were following Christianity for years and that there was no question of forceful conversion. All three women are adults. Nothing in the (police) diary said they were assaulted (by the accused). There are no ingredients for human trafficking or forceful conversion in the FIR or diary. The FIR was based on suspicion after nuns were seen with the women. We argued the nuns are aged, do not have a criminal record and there was no element for registering an offence.”
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Das said they argued that the prosecution is not even asking for custodial interrogation and questioned the progress made by them in the seven days since the arrests were made. The GRP official present in court was also asked by the judge if custodial interrogation was needed, but got no positive response. When the judge asked what their objection was against bail, the prosecution only said that probe was in the initial stage.
The Indian Express on July 30 had spoken with one of the three women who were alleged to have been trafficked. The woman said the arrested persons, including the two nuns, were innocent. She alleged that right-wing workers threatened her to change her statement and that the GRP did not listen to what she was saying and based the FIR on what the right-wing workers said. While senior Chhattisgarh Police officers refused to comment, the right-wing workers stood by the allegations made in their initial complaint.