Catholic nuns remain jailed in India as Church leaders condemn ‘unlawful arrest’

Two Catholic nuns remain jailed in central India six days after their arrest, prompting strong condemnation from religious leaders who call the charges against them baseless and politically motivated.

Authorities arrested Sisters Vandana Francis and Preeti Mary July 25 at the Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh, where they had gone to meet three young women who were joining their convents as domestic help, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported. Hindu activists accused the nuns of human trafficking and forced religious conversion, leading to their detention alongside a man, Sukhman Mandavi, who accompanied the women.

The women, aged 19 to 22, told police they were Christians from the Church of South India and had joined the sisters voluntarily with their families’ consent. According to ICC, the nuns had also shown the police the letters of consent given by the parents.

Despite that, police charged the nuns, members of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI), with human trafficking and conversion. 

K. C. Venugopal, a member of Parliament from the opposition Congress party, wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah — who belongs to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — to condemn the continued detention. 

In the letter, he called it “a blatant miscarriage of justice and a direct attack on the rights and dignity of citizens belonging to minority communities,” ICC reported. He said the nuns and the young man remained in custody “despite clear parental consent and documentation,” reportedly due to political pressure.

UCA News reported that a local court denied the nuns bail July 30, claiming lack of jurisdiction and directing the case to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, which typically handles terrorism-related cases.

Catholic leaders condemned the development as unjust. 

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malabar Church and president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, led a protest in the nuns’ home state of Kerala. Demonstrators, including priests and nuns, marched in silence with black cloths covering their faces outside the Governor’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram.

Cardinal Cleemis said the arrest of the nuns “is a challenge to the secular foundations of the country.” 

He said that the nuns are Indian citizens and urged both state and federal leaders to take action to ensure they receive fair treatment.

According to UCA News, demonstrators accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP of encouraging hostility toward religious minorities. Hindu nationalist groups aligned with the party frequently oppose Christian missionary activity and advocate for a Hindu-only vision of the nation.

The Conference of Religious India, representing more than 130,000 men and women in religious life, issued a statement July 30 calling the arrests a “gross abuse of the law.” It labeled the charges “completely false and fabricated” and warned that the incident reflects a “larger pattern of hate crimes targeting minorities,” particularly Christians.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India plans to file an application in the NIA court to challenge what it calls the illegal detention of the nuns.

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