Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, along with other party MPs from Kerala, held a protest in Parliament premises demanded the release of two Catholic nuns who were jailed in Chhattisgarh's Durg.
The nuns – Preethi Merry and Vandana Francis – were arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
However, senior party leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor was missing from the protest. Tharoor took part in a protest on the same issue on Tuesday.
He had earlier questioned the arrest of the nuns, alleging that innocent people had been jailed while the real culprits had been let off.
“It seems to me that mob rule is going on,” Tharoor said, adding that the Chhattisgarh government should arrest the “goons” and not the nuns.
Before the Lok Sabha proceedings begun, Priyanka Gandhi, along with Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, RSP MP N K Premchandran and other party MPs staged a protest near the Makar Dwar of the Parliament.
"Some nuns from Kerala were very badly ill-treated. They were accused of things they were not doing," Priyanka said, adding that the nuns were “manhandled” and that the protest was being held against the “attacks on minorities”.
{{/usCountry}}"Some nuns from Kerala were very badly ill-treated. They were accused of things they were not doing," Priyanka said, adding that the nuns were “manhandled” and that the protest was being held against the “attacks on minorities”.
{{/usCountry}}Congress leaders also raised the matter during Zero Hour on Wednesday, with K C Venugopal and K Suresh calling the incident “deeply disturbing and shocking”. They said the nurses were innocent, and were providing palliative care for cancer patients.
Congress leaders also stormed the well of the House demanding the release of the nuns.
What is the case against the nuns?
The two nuns, along with Sukhman Mandavi, a resident of Narayanpur, were arrested at the Durg Railway Station, police said on Sunday (July 27).
The three, who had come from Agra, were accompanying three young women aged between 18 and 19. According to a police officer, the nuns were allegedly taking the women, who were residents of Narayanpur, to Agra.
“The women were lured with promises of good facilities and a monthly salary of ₹8,000 to ₹10,000,” the police officer said.
They were arrested on the complaint of a local Bajrang Dal functionary, who accused the nuns of forcibly converting the three girls and trafficking them.
During questioning, the women said that they were initially promised jobs in Chhattisgarh but on reaching Durg, they were told they would be taken to Agra.
Following the arrest, Venugopal wrote to Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, saying that the nurses had parental consent. “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.
The 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. The nuns have been remanded to police custody till August 8.