Two nuns, man held in Chhattisgarh; MP Venugopal calls it fake conversion case

K. C. Venugopal said the nuns, part of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), were accompanying three young women with full parental consent

Raipur: Three people, including two nuns, were arrested by the railway police in Chhattisgarh’s Durg Railway Station under charges of trafficking and religion conversion after they were found with three young women, police said on Sunday.

The accused were accompanying three women, aged between 18 and 19, all residents of Narayanpur district. (Representative photo)

Sukhman Mandavi, a resident of Narayanpur, and two nuns, Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis, who had come from Agra were accompanying the three women, aged between 18 and 19, all residents of Narayanpur district.

“They were allegedly taking the women to Agra. The women were lured with promises of good facilities and a monthly salary of ₹8,000 to ₹10,000,” a police officer said.

Meanwhile, chairperson of the public accounts committee and member of Parliament K. C. Venugopal wrote to Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, condemning the incident. “The nuns, part of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), were accompanying three young women with full parental consent for employment purposes when they were targeted,” he said.

Acting on a tip-off reportedly from members of the Bajrang Dal, the Government Railway Police (GRP) raided the area on Friday. “When questioned, the women said that initially, they were told they would be offered jobs within Chhattisgarh, but when they reached Durg, they were told that the nuns had come to take them to Agra,” a police officer said.

Members of the Bajrang Dal protested at the GRP police station and demanded stringent action against the accused for human trafficking and forced religious conversion. “Our volunteers spotted the group at the station and alerted the police,” Bajrang Dal’s Durg coordinator Saurabh Dewangan said.

Venugopal accused Bajrang Dal members of detaining two Catholic nuns and a young man under false accusations of religious conversion. Describing the incident as a “blatant miscarriage of justice” and a “direct attack” on minority rights, he expressed concern over rising attacks on Christian minorities in Chhattisgarh.

Police have registered a case under Section 143 (trafficking of person) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 4 (religious conversion) of the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act, 1968. They were remanded in judicial custody till August 8.

When contacted, the women’s families denied knowing anything about the Agra plan and said they were searching for the missing girls, an officer said.