Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], August 8 (HBTV): Major Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, on Wednesday dismissed allegations of forced religious conversion against two Kerala-based nuns who were arrested at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh on July 25. The Archbishop clarified that the women involved were already Christians, and hence, the claim of conversion was baseless.

Kerala Minister for Education, V. Sivankutty, met Archbishop Cleemis and assured him of full support from the state government in the matter.

"The Minister for Education of Kerala met us and assured that everything will be done to protect the sisters who have been arrested," Cleemis told reporters. "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."

He added, “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.”

Meanwhile, senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat visited the Durg Central Jail in Chhattisgarh, where the two nuns are currently lodged. Karat, accompanied by CPI leader Annie Raja and other members of a party delegation, met the nuns and later termed the arrests as part of a "targeted attack" on the Christian community.

"Two nuns who have been serving the poor here for years were jailed on the basis of a fake allegation and a manufactured lie. A tribal boy who had no fault was also beaten up and jailed. What kind of law is this, where members of Bajrang Dal or RSS beat up those girls and a boy like this in front of the police?" Karat said while speaking to ANI.

"They are doing all this under the protection of the government. This is a targeted attack on the Christian community," she added.

Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar also weighed in on the matter, stating that the state unit of the party had contacted the Chhattisgarh government regarding the arrests. He clarified that there was “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 told ANI.

Earlier, on July 27, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India issued a strong condemnation of the arrests. The CBCI claimed that the women had written permission from their parents and were physically assaulted after being detained.   

(ANI)