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Major Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, on Wednesday denied the charge of forced conversion against the Kerala nuns who were arrested at the Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh on July 25. He said that the alleged victims were already Christians and hence there was no question of conversion.
Kerala Minister V Sivankutty visited Archbishop Cleemis and assured him of all help from the State government. "The Minister for Education of Kerala met us and assured that everything will be done to protect the sisters who have been arrested... As the situation takes a new step ahead, the bail is rejected, and we do not know what motivates these people to act in such a way," Cleemis told reporters. "The sisters are saying that they have travelled on their own. Yet some people want to put this accusation of forced conversion. We have full confidence in the Indian judiciary. We will take measures in the Court... We hope we will be able to get justice... They are already Christians, there is no issue of conversion," he said. Meanwhile, Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat today visited the Durg Central Jail in Chhattisgarh, where the two nuns were lodged. Karat, who was joined by CPI leaders Annie Raja and other members of a party delegation, met the nuns and later condemned the arrests as unjust, calling them part of a "targeted attack" on the Christian community in the State. Speaking to ANI, Karat said, "Two nuns who have been serving the poor here for years were jailed today on the basis of a fake allegation and a manufactured lie. A tribal boy who had no fault was also beaten up and jailed today. What kind of law is this that people of Bajrang Dal or any RSS outfit beat those girls and a boy like this in front of the police and law enforcement agencies?" "They are doing all this under the protection of the government. This is a targeted attack on the Christian community," Karat added. Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that the party's state unit has reached out to the Chhattisgarh government over the arrest of the two nuns in Durg, clarifying that there has been "no issue of trafficking or conversion." "We have immediately reached out to the government of Chhattisgarh and clarified that these are nuns who were accompanying three adult women with the consent of their families for jobs and therefore, there was no issue of trafficking nor was there an issue of any conversion," Chandrasekhar tol ANI. On July 27, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) strongly condemned the alleged incident, claiming that, according to reports, the women had explicit written permission from their parents but were physically assaulted after being arrested. (ANI)
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