Nuns arrest: MoS Kurian says only BJP interested to resolve issue, Cong not keen

Thiruvananthapuram/Chhattisgarh, July 31 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Fisheries George Kurian on Thursday slammed the Congress, saying only the BJP is interested in resolving the issue of the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh and the grand old party wants to delay their release for the reasons unknown.

Talking to the media, Kurian said: "You should understand it was Kerala State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Anoop Antony who started the efforts, and it's currently going on. Very soon, we will be able to hear good news."

Kurian also pointed out that there is some confusion about who moved the bail application in the Sessions court.

"The police brought the three young women (who were found with the nuns) for the hearing of the bail plea on Monday, but much to their surprise, it was not moved in the court."

Kurian said the Chhattisgarh court rejected the nuns' plea as it was beyond their brief.

Notably, the Chhattisgarh Sessions Court rejected the bail pleas, saying it is "out of their jurisdiction".

"We wish to ask why the Congress MPs from Chhattisgarh were not joining the protesting Congress MPs in Delhi," said Kurian, and further pointed out that since the matter is sub-judice, he has limitations to speak more.

The two nuns, Sister Preeti Mary and Sister Vandana Francis, belong to the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate, a congregation under the Syro-Malabar Church in Alappuzha district.

They had been working at a hospital in Agra. On July 26, while accompanying three women from Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district to Agra for jobs as kitchen helpers in a convent, the nuns and a man, Sukhman Mandavi, were stopped at a Chhattisgarh railway station by Bajrang Dal activists.

Acting on the complaint, the nuns were later taken into custody by police on charges of human trafficking and forced conversions.

They were later produced before a local court and sent to judicial custody.

With the sessions court now directing the matter to the High Court, the nuns will remain in jail until the bail plea is heard afresh.

--IANS

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