‘Police Excesses’, Role of Bajrang Dal Under Scanner in Case of Nuns' Arrest in Chhattisgarh
A National Investigation Agency (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, 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, 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 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 an 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.
FIR against Keralite nuns, tribal man
Outrage after the arrests
The arrest of the two Malayali nuns triggered outrage from political and religious leaders from Kerala even as their families questioned the basis of the police action.
The family members of the three tribal women not only confirmed that they were Christians, but also rejected all the allegations against the nuns.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident and wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking immediate intervention.
At the same time, Congress MPs sought a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the rising incidents of attacks against Christian minorities. On July 30, Congress leader and MP K.C. Venugopal said during the zero hour in Lok Sabha that “the Centre must intervene and ensure the release of two nuns”. Further, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) delegation led by senior party leader Brinda Karat met the nuns in prison on July 30.
While Chhattisgarh chief minister and BJP leader Vishnu Deo Sai backed the police action against the nuns, Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on July 29 that the nuns “were not involved in trafficking or conversion activities”. Chandrasekhar added that BJP's Kerala general secretary Anoop Antony had himself gone to Chhattisgarh, and that BJP was extending all possible help.
Naked violation of constitutional rights: Kerala priest
Alt News reached out to Father Tom Olikkarott, priest and spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala. He told us that both Francis and Mary were part of the same congregation.
“They have dedicated their lives to treating leprosy patients. They were engaged in charitable and philanthropic work. They were helping build the nation,” Olikkarott told Alt News.
“The girls were travelling with a man who was the elder brother of one of the girls. Sisters Francis and Mary had appointed them [the three women] to work at an organisation in Agra, and that is where they were going. A few of their [the three women’s] neighbours were already working there, and that is how they got in touch with the nuns,” he added.
Olikkarott also confirmed to Alt News that the three women belonged to the Christian community. “The families have been Christians for generations. How can there be a question of conversion?” he asked.
“The Bajrang Dal members arrived at the station, harassed them and started asking for details. Who are they to enquire anything? They [the nuns] have the right to travel, right? This is a complete violation of human rights and a naked violation of minority and constitutional rights,” he added.
‘Deliberate delay in legal procedure’
Speaking to Alt News a day before the nuns were released on conditional bail, Jimson Mathew, younger brother of Francis, said, “We will go ahead legally. We have full faith in the justice system. But they are using legal loopholes to delay the process as a whole. But we haven’t done anything wrong, and we believe that justice will prevail.”
Mathew was in Chhattisgarh to deal with the legal proceedings when he spoke to Alt News. “We were able to meet my sister. The jailer was cooperative,” he added.
Speaking about the charges levelled against his sister, he told Alt News, “The human trafficking accusations are baseless. The three people [the three young women and Sukhman Mandavi] who were with the nuns were going to join work. Their parents had no objection to their joining this job. They even had police clearance to travel and work [likely because the women belonged to a tribal community]. These clearance papers were with the Sisters when they were arrested … None of them did anything wrong; their only fault was not having a platform ticket.”
Mathew reiterated that the women were being taken to Agra to work in a convent there. “All three people are adults. The Sisters chose to personally take them over as they were young people from a tribal background. All of them had travel tickets to Agra,” he added.
The tribal women were being taken to Agra forcibly: Bajrang Dal
A Bajrang Dal member Alt News spoke to, however, had a different version of the events.
Saurabh Dewangan, a Bajrang Dal activist from Durg, Chhattisgarh, was present at the rail station when the incident took place.
“The women looked visibly upset and expressed reluctance to travel from Narayanpur to Agra. They said, ‘Let us go,’ but the pastor [referring to Sukhman Mandavi] was forcing them to travel with him and the nuns,” claimed Dewangan.
He further alleged that the three were not well-educated, had received nursing training and were being taken under the pretext of being offered jobs. However, according to him, the women had no clear idea where they were being taken. He also claimed that each of the three women possessed two sets of Aadhaar cards.
Dewangan shared with us a 1.17-minute-long video containing a remark by Sukhmati. She says that she did not want to leave her home and travel as far as to Agra, but her brother [Sukhman Mandavi] insisted that the train tickets had already been booked and could not be cancelled.
We tracked down the full video, which is over 38 minutes long and includes the woman’s statement mentioned above. It was posted on YouTube by the channel VLC News on July 25.
This video summarily refutes Dewangan’s claims. Sukhmati, who identifies herself with her name, tells a reporter in this video that they were headed to Agra to work as cooks at a place run by the nuns. She also says they had been informed about the job in advance and were asked whether they wanted to go. She and the other women agreed to visit and check out the workplace. Sukhmati adds that train tickets were bought and that several other women from her district also joined the same job.
The interviewer then asks similar questions to Kamleswari, apparently attempting to imply that the nuns were conspiring to do something beyond what the women had been told. However, she, too, asserts that her parents were aware of her travel plans.
Hours after we traced this video, VLC News made it ‘private’, i.e., inaccessible for viewers. When we contacted a representative of the channel, he said the channel had “received guidelines” to do so, once the matter blew up.
Some parts of the conversation between the women and mediapersons and a Bajrang Dal leader named Jyoti Sharma are still available on the internet.
‘Slapped, heckled, forced to give salse statements by Bajrang Dal activists’
In one video, police personnel are seen present in the room where the nuns, along with the man and the ‘victims’, are seated. However, the questioning is initially carried out by Jyoti Sharma, a Bajrang Dal leader. She is seen checking the documents carried by the women and the nuns, and speaking to them brashly.
Sharma can be heard asking the women: “You are not that young that you just agreed to go with these people. Don’t you know anything about these kinds of people? Don’t you use social media? Don’t you use WhatsApp? Don’t you know what these people do after taking you with them?”
A local Bajrang Dal leader told the Indian Express that Sharma was not from the same outfit. She is an activist with the Durga Vahini Matrushakti.
This takes place in the presence of Railway Police officials, who appear to wait for Sharma to finish searching their belongings before taking over.
VLC News posted a Short on YouTube on July 25. Here, Sukhmati can be heard saying that they were headed to Agra to work as cooks at a place run by the nuns. She says they had been informed about the job in advance and were asked whether they wanted to go. She and the other women agreed to visit and check out the workplace. Sukhmati also states that several other women from her district also joined the same job.
We found another video by a channel called CG Khabar, where statements of the three women were included. They clearly state that they were coerced into giving false statements and had filed a counter-FIR.
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