RAIPUR
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has granted bail to two Catholic nuns, Sister Preeti Mary and Sister Vandana Francis, who were lodged in Durg jail for the past nine days in a human trafficking case. The court, presided over by Judge Sirajuddin Quraishi, granted bail on a surety of ₹50,000 each.
The arrests had triggered widespread protests in several parts of the country, with the matter being raised in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The bail hearing took place on Friday, 1 August, at the Bilaspur NIA court. The court reserved its decision after hearing arguments from both sides and announced its verdict on Saturday, 2 August. The nuns’ lawyer stated there was a lack of concrete evidence to support the charges.
The two nuns were arrested on 25 July after a group of Bajrang Dal activists at the Durg railway station accused them of human trafficking and forceful conversion. The activists had reportedly seen three tribal girls, a young man and the two nuns at the station. They alleged that the girls were being taken to Agra for conversion and forced labour.
The incident led to a protest by Bajrang Dal members at the GRP police station, where they filed a complaint against the nuns. They were booked under Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for human trafficking and Section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Dharma Swatantrata Adhiniyam of 1968 for forceful conversion.
Following the arrests, Christian organisations staged protests in several districts of Chhattisgarh. A delegation of United Democratic Front (UDF) MPs from Kerala met with the nuns in jail and held discussions on the matter with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai.
A key development in the case was the statement by one of the three tribal girls from Narayanpur, who said that the nuns were innocent. The girl claimed that they were not being abducted and were travelling to Agra of their own volition. She alleged that she was beaten and forced to give a statement against the nuns.
Earlier, a Durg district court had rejected the nuns’ bail plea on 30 July, citing five key reasons for its decision. The court had stated it lacked the jurisdiction to hear cases under the NIA Act, 2008. It also deemed the charges serious, expressing concerns about potential social tensions if the nuns were released on bail.
