Nuns in India Jailed, Christians Assaulted amid Baseless Charges

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Falsely accusing two nuns and a Christian man of trafficking three women in India, Hindu extremists with threats and assault forced the three tribal Christian women to sign a statement against their companions, sources said.

“We will gang rape you if you do not do as we say,” the members of the Hindu nationalist Bajrang Dal told the three women at the Durg railway police station in the central state of Chhattisgarh on July 25, said 19-year-old Sukhmati Mandavi, one of the three tribal Christian women. “We got very scared. We were repeatedly slapped until we agreed to sign on the statement that was dictated by the Bajrang Dal people to the Durg police.”

The nuns along with Sukhman Mandavi, a tribal Christian accompanying the three women, were charged with human trafficking under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and forced conversion under the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act on the complaint of Bajrang Dal member Ravi Nigam, who alleged they were “trafficking” three tribal women to Agra to forcibly convert them.

Sent to Durg jail, the nuns and Sukhman Mandavi were released on bail on Aug. 2.

The three young tribal women from Narayanpur District – Sukhmati Mandavi and 19-year-old Lalita Usendi, both from Orcha village, along with 21-year-old Kamleshwari Pradhan from Kukdajhor – were traveling to begin new jobs at a Catholic hospital in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. They had agreed to work in the hospital’s kitchen for two years.

The women on July 24 traveled with Sukhman Mandavi, a tribal Christian from their community, who escorted them safely to Durg city. The following morning, July 25, they met two nuns – Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis – at the Durg railway station so the nuns could accompany them to Agra.

Sanau Mandavi, a Christian leader in Narayanpur, said the families of the three tribal women had consented to send them and initially had requested Sukhman Mandavi’s sister accompany them.

“But suddenly her daughter fell ill, and so she cancelled her plan and sent her brother to safely send off the girls instead,” Sanau Mandavi said.

Phulsingh Kachlam, a Christian providing shelter to the three tribal women in Narayanpur since their return, said they fear going back to their respective villages due to threats on their lives.

“The Abujmarh region that they come from is known for its tribal population and Maoist presence,” said Kachlam, a local leader of the Communist Party of India. “This is how it is in villages – if one cannot mold the victims, they pressure their families instead to get what they want.”

Abuse

The three women along with Sukhman Mandavi left Narayanpur by bus at 9:45 p.m. on July 24, reaching Durg at 4:30 a.m. on July 25.

After the tribal women had used the station Retiring Room, a female Ticket Collector (TC) informed them that they had to buy a ticket to use the facility. They informed Sukhman Mandavi, who quickly went and purchased a ticket.

“The TC pointed out that we needed individual tickets for each one and thus we will have to pay a fine,” said Usendi.

The TC took the tribal women to an office where they paid a fine of 250 Indian rupees ($2.85 USD).

“Someone from the Retiring Room called the Bajrang Dal people and reported that ‘Three girls are being trafficked,’” and the Hindu nationalist members soon arrived, Usendi said.

The Catholic nuns joined the tribal women around 9 a.m., and as they began to board the train, a mob of Bajrang Dal members arrived and created a loud commotion, said Usendi. A video of the railway station platform shows the aggressive mob screaming and protesting the supposed trafficking in the presence of police.

Another 40-second video shows a group of Bajrang Dal members manhandling Sukhman Mandavi, repeatedly dragging him by the ear and slapping him hard.

“Sukhman bhaiya’s hearing was damaged from the repeated beatings,” Usendi said, “bhaiya” being a Hindi term of respect for an older male.

Government Railway Police (GRP) took the two nuns, three tribal women and Sukhman Mandavi inside the station. Soon Jyoti Sharma of the Hindu nationalist Durga Vahini Matrushakti – often seen as the female counterpart to the Bajrang Dal – arrived and began threatening them, they said.

In one of the videos recorded inside the police station, Sharma is seen rummaging through the Christians’ bags and interrogating them about every paper or ID they were carrying. She pulls a Bible from one of the bags and throws it on the policeman’s table.

In a post on X, video footage shows Sharma telling one of the nuns, “If you don’t want to speak, I will smash your face.”

Sharma accused the nuns of trafficking the tribal women. She asked each woman separately about their faith, and they clearly stated that they were following the Christian faith – one saying for the past five to six years, and two saying for the past 10 years.

“Jyoti Sharma took the three of us inside a room with more than 15 Bajrang Dal men,” said Pradhan. “She enquired from the police if they had CCTV cameras fitted in the room; when they said none, she did not allow any policeman to be in the room and ordered those recording videos to stop recording. She then began to question us if we were allured by the nuns.”

When the Christians replied that the nuns had not lured them into going with them, Sharma slapped them, Pradhan said.

“She repeatedly slapped us till we agreed to sign the documents that sent the nuns and Sukhman Mandavi to jail,” she said.

The three tribal women said the Bajrang Dal men threatened to gang rape them if they did not do as told.

“The men molested us by touching our private parts,” said Sukhmati Mandavi. “The police did not even record our statement. The Bajrang Dal members narrated to the police, and we were asked to sign. We were very scared and were forced to sign.”

At the Durg jail, the nuns who are in their mid-50s and have serious medical conditions, were made to sleep on a cold floor, according to those who visited them. Soon they reportedly were suffering from fevers.

A lower court denied them bail on July 30, stating that serious offenses like human trafficking are subject to the National Investigating Agency Act 2008 (NIA). The NIA court in Bilaspur granted bail to the two nuns and Sukhman Mandavi on Aug. 2 by imposing strict conditions, including payment of personal bonds and surrendering their passports.

Protests

The arrests brought strong protests throughout India.

Christians organized several protests in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, New Delhi and in most states in the country’s northeast. In Kerala the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India carried out a silent protest march to Kerala’s Raj Bhavan (Governor’s residence).

Notably, a large protest rally also materialized in Narayanpur, home of the three supposed trafficking “victims.” More than 3,000 people, at least 80 percent of them Christians of various denominations, formed a three-kilometer procession demanding the arrest of Sharma and other members of the Bajrang Dal who had abused and threatened the women with rape and forced them to sign the documents, sources said.

The rally, organized by the Communist Party of India, was led by the three tribal Christian women who had been subjected to the abuse, they said. Protestors demanded that a police complaint be filed against Sharma and members of the Bajrang Dal.

Christian support organization Open Doors ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister.

Religious rights advocates blame the increasingly hostile rhetoric of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which they say has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took power in May 2014.

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