Raipur/Koch: After spending eight days in jail, two Kerala nuns walked out of Central Jail in Durg, Chhattisgarh, at 3.40 p.m. on Saturday, hours after a special NIA court in Bilaspur granted them bail in a case involving charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
Both of them looked tired but had smiles on their faces when they emerged from the jail and hugged their colleagues.
Among those who were waiting outside were Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, lawmakers from Kerala, including Jose K. Mani, John Brittas, Santhosh Kumar, Roji M. John, Anwar Sadath, Chandy Oommen, and a few colleagues of the two nuns.
State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said this bail could have happened three days ago if there had been no political drama.
“Thanks to PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister. Early this week, Church higher-ups got in touch with me seeking help, and then I had said things would be done and it has happened,” said Chandrasekhar.
Due to bail conditions, the nuns did not speak to the waiting media.
The two nuns were escorted in a car by their close relatives, who had travelled from Kerala and were going to a nearby school.
Earlier in the day, Sister Preeti Mary and Sister Vandana Francis, both members of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate — a congregation under the Syro-Malabar Church in Alappuzha district got bail after they were directed to submit a bond of Rs 50,000 each along with two sureties.
They have also been ordered to surrender their passports, not to influence the witnesses, besides having to report to the local police station in Chhattisgarh once every two weeks.
Their ordeal began on July 26 when the two, who were working at a hospital in Agra, were escorting three women from Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh to Agra for employment as kitchen helpers in a convent. They were stopped at a railway station by Bajrang Dal activists, who alleged forced religious conversion and human trafficking.
Acting on the activists’ complaint, police arrested the nuns and a man named Sukhman Mandavi, accusing them of human trafficking and attempted religious.
Mandavi also walked out free.
The two nuns are expected to travel to Kerala first to meet their families before returning to their duties.
