- Two Catholic nuns and a tribal youth were granted conditional bail by NIA court in Bilaspur
- Each accused must deposit Rs 50,000 and surrender passports, barred from leaving the country
- The accused were arrested on July 25 over allegations of forced religious conversion and trafficking
Kumari Lalita Usendi, her voice firm but emotional, says she feels good that she has been proven innocent. "Jyoti Sharma sent bhaiya and sister to jail without any proof. Today we got bail, and it feels good," Ms Usendi said.
Another young tribal girl, Kamleshwari Pradhan, breaks into tears while speaking to NDTV.
"There was so much violence, sir... it was our first time traveling like this... they dragged us to the police station, Jyoti Sharma beat us. It was terrifying," Ms Pradhan said.
In a dramatic turn of events in the much-politicised conversion and trafficking case in Chhattisgarh's Durg, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur granted conditional bail to two Catholic nuns from Kerala and a tribal youth from Chhattisgarh, who were arrested amidst a wave of controversy and political grandstanding.
The court, while granting bail, ruled that each accused must deposit Rs 50,000 in bond and submit their passports, forbidding them from leaving the country without permission.
"We were on our way to Agra for work. Jyoti Sharma accused us of religious conversion and human trafficking. These are false allegations. We've been attending prayers since childhood. What she says is a lie," Sukanmati Mandavi said.
The bail order was passed by the Principal District and Sessions Judge (NIA court) Sirajuddin Qureshi, who reserved his decision after hearing arguments on Friday. The court observed that there was no need to keep them in custody and granted bail under certain restrictions.
The arrests, which took place on July 25 at Durg railway station, were triggered by a complaint from the Bajrang Dal alleging that the nuns were forcibly converting three tribal girls from Narayanpur and trafficking them.
The Durg GRP acted swiftly, arresting Preeti Mary, Vandana Francis, and Sukaman Mandavi, a local youth accompanying them. What followed was a political firestorm that reached from Chhattisgarh to Kerala to the corridors of Delhi.
The courtroom scene on Saturday was subdued yet tense. After hearing the bail petition on Friday, the NIA court reserved its verdict, which it delivered a day later. The judge, Sirajuddin Qureshi, noted that there was no prior criminal record against the accused and found the case lacking enough weight to justify further detention, at least at this stage.
Outside the courtroom, relief was palpable among supporters of the nuns.
"The victims have been sent home. The prosecution didn't even demand custody. The truth will come out eventually," lawyer Amrito Das said.
The petitioner's lawyer, B Gopakumar, said some bail conditions were also put up, including that "they will not be able to go abroad, they will have to surrender the passport, they should not influence the witness."
But while the legal system granted relief to the accused, the case took a shocking turn when the very girls allegedly being "rescued" came forward - not as victims of the nuns, but of those who had claimed to protect them.
On Saturday afternoon, the three tribal girls appeared at the office of the Superintendent of Police in Narayanpur, accompanied by their family and local activists.
Breaking down in front of the media, one of the girls accused members of the Bajrang Dal and social worker Jyoti Sharma of beating, molesting, and publicly humiliating them at the Durg railway station.
"We were going on our own will to work. They stopped us, beat us, touched us inappropriately and hurled abuses," one young woman cried out as she clutched a written complaint. Her family echoed her pain.
"Our daughters were framed. Our family's dignity was torn apart in public. We want strict action against Bajrang Dal and Jyoti Sharma," said her mother.
The women allege the entire case was a politically-driven fabricated narrative designed to stir religious tensions and criminalise community workers. "They made up a story of conversion and used us as pawns," said another girl.
The police have acknowledged receipt of their complaint and assured that an inquiry will be conducted. No first information report (FIR) has been filed yet.
