Chhattisgarh: Kerala nuns arrested in trafficking, religious conversion case granted bail

Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) [India], August 2 (ANI): Two Kerala-based nuns arrested earlier in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, on charges of human trafficking have been granted bail by a local court, their legal counsel confirmed on Saturday.
The case was filed under Section 143 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 3 of The Orissa Freedom Of Religion Act, 1967.
Advocate Gopa Kumar, representing the nuns, told ANI, "A case of human trafficking was registered under BNS section 143. We argued that this section cannot be applied to the case. So the court has granted bail today. They cannot go out of India and a bail bond of Rs 50000 each needs to be furnished. The bail will be granted in a few hours."
An advocate representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is handling aspects of the case, also confirmed the development.
"The bail order has been passed, and conditional bail has been given to them. The conditions include that they must not leave India and must not influence the investigation. Around five such conditions have been imposed. We have received the court order and will study it in detail," the NIA counsel said.
On Friday, a special NIA court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district took up the bail application of three persons, including the two nuns, in the case. The court reserved its order for today. The defence counsel argued that there was no material evidence to suggest that the accused indulged in forcible religious conversion or human trafficking.
The nuns from Kerala were arrested at Durg Railway Station in Chhattisgarh on July 25.
In Kerala, both the ruling Left Democratic Front and the Opposition United Democratic Front condemned the arrest and accused the BJP government in Chhattisgarh of undermining religious freedom.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor condemned as "a grave injustice" the arrest of two nuns.
"The arrest of nuns is a grave injustice. They have not done anything against the law," Tharoor told reporters in the national capital.
He said that the nuns were just taking some tribal girls to the city for employment.
"Seeing this, members of the Bajrang Dal raised a false alarm and the police came and arrested the nuns. This is not right. When everyone is raising objections to it, they are still in jail for the last one week... BJP's Kerala unit is saying they will travel to Chhattisgarh to get them bail. Nothing has happened so far," he said. (ANI)