Durg prison authorities in Chhattisgarh assure LDF delegation from Kerala of shifting ailing nuns to district hospital

The authorities at the Durg Central Prison in Chhattisgarh have promised to shift the incarcerated and reportedly ailing Keralite nuns Vandana Francis and Preeta Mary of the order of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), to the district hospital, according to members of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) delegation that visited the duo at the prison on Wednesday (July 30, 2025). 

The Chhattisgarh police had arrested the nuns at the Durg railway station on July 25 after local activists of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right-wing organisation, mobbed them on the charge of attempting to spirit away three women, including a tribal, to Agra for “forced conversion to Christianity”.

The police have charged the nuns under Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for trafficking and under Section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act, 1968. The charges entail imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of not less than ₹2 lakh.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) would move the District Sessions Court in Durg to secure bail for the nuns.

Speaking to reporters outside the prison, Annie Raja, general secretary of National Federation of Indian Women and member of national secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI), said the nuns, given their health, found the prison conditions unbearable.

“The nuns have to sleep on the floor, despite one of them having arthritis. We have requested the authorities to provide them with beds. The nuns have no access to the medicines they consumed regularly to mitigate various chronic conditions. The sisters were inconsolable when they narrated the physical intimidation and verbal abuse they suffered at the hands of the Bajrang Dal activists as the local police meekly allowed the aggressors to conduct a kangaroo court and inquisition at the railway station and later at the local station house,” Ms. Raja said. 

She said the local authorities hustled away the three women who were travelling with the nuns to Narayanpur to avoid them meeting the LDF delegation. However, the LDF delegation was able to meet Subhuman Mandav, who had accompanied the three women, at the adjacent district jail for males.

The local law enforcement had arrested Mr. Mandav, a tribal, on the charge of “procuring vulnerable women from financially hard-pressed families in his socially backwards community” for conversion to Christianity.

Kerala Congress (M) chairperson, Jose K. Mani, MP, alleged that the police allowed the Bajrang Dal activists to assault Mr. Mandav at the station house.

Quoting Mr. Mandav, Mr. Mani alleged that the Bajrang Dal activists also coerced the three women to change their statement that they were baptised Christians and had joined the nuns on their own volition and with the explicit and written consent of their parents.

“The fear among Christians in the BJP-ruled States is palpable. Nuns and priests dare not wear their habits or meet members of their laity in Chhattisgarh,” he said. 

BJP’s toxic agenda: Brinda Karat

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader Brinda Karat noted that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had endorsed the charges against the nuns on social media by terming the incident as human trafficking and inducement for religious conversion.

“Mr Sai’s words reflected the BJP’s toxic agenda to relegate minorities, chiefly Christians, as subaltern citizens in India. The Chief Minister is following the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mandate required of him. The Bajrang Dal’s attempt to portray them as foreigners and proselytisers exploiting the State’s backwardness for conversion hurt the sisters involved in social work deeply,” Ms. Karat said.

CPI(M)‘s central committee member K. Radhakrishnan, MP, said the LDF would raise the issue in Lok Sabha again after the Speaker rejected the Opposition’s notice for an adjournment debate. CPI(M) leader A.A. Rahim was part of the Left delegation.