– Sahar Khan
Raipur: Two Catholic nuns from Kerala – Sisters Preethi Marry and Vandana Francis were released from Durg jail on Saturday after the special National Investigation Court (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur granted conditional bail to the three accused including Sukarman Mandavi from Narayanpur district.
The trio were arrested by police over allegations of human trafficking and forced religious conversion on July 25 at Durg railway station, about 45 km from here, following the demonstration by local Bajrang Dal cadre who spotted them. The police had then registered an FIR against the three after a written complaint from a local Bajrang Dal functionary alleging three tribal girls (victims) were trafficked from Narayanpur (south Chhattisgarh) and the accused involved in unlawful religious conversion. The lower court had then remanded all accused to 14-day judicial custody till August 8.
The hearing on Friday took place in the NIA court of the principal district and sessions judge Sirajuddin Qureshi who after the proceedings kept the order reserved until Saturday.
The NIA court in its order observed: “It transpired from the case diary that the FIR registered primarily based on a mere apprehension and suspicion of committing the offence by the accused persons. The arrest memo of the accused shows there is no previous record of their criminal history and the parents of the three victims (tribal girls) have filed their affidavits stating the accused have not allured or forced their daughters for religious conversion or human trafficking. Besides, the two victim girls in their statement before the police stated they have been followers of Christianity since childhood.”
The court set conditions that the accused will surrender their passports, cooperate with the investigation process, not tamper with evidence or intimidate the witnesses and furnish a bond of Rs 50000 each with two sureties. “There is no requisition from the investigating agency for custodial interrogation of the accused persons. Hence the court is of the option that accused persons are entitled to regular bail,” the court further stated.
After the grant of bail, all accused later in the evening were released from the Durg central jail. CPI MP P Santosh Kumar, Kerala BJP state president Rajeev Chandrashekar were among the leaders present as the nuns walked free from the jail.
After the decision of the NIA court, the defence lawyer and former deputy solicitor general B Gopa Kumar said the charges against the three accused are fallacious as there are no ingredients in support of the two allegations as found in the police case/diary against the accused. “All three alleged victims are adults, who were accompanying the nuns willingly and have already been following Christianity. They have the right to move anywhere,” he asserted.
The public prosecutor opposed the bail during the proceeding in the NIA court citing the charges against the three accused as serious in nature. “Interrogation is not yet complete as the probe remains at a preliminary stage. Since the issue is sensitive and related to religion and human trafficking, we had appealed the court not to give the bail,” said Prankush Mishra, who appeared as a public prosecutor.
The incident at Durg railway station and the registered case led to strong reactions across the political, religious and rights groups in the country. The Christian organisations sought prompt decisive action to “curb religious fanaticism”.
The Congress hailed the NIA court’s observation as ‘victory of truth’ while the BJP reiterated that the action in the given case was carried out on the basis of facts and the probe will continue.
