Narayanpur: A tribal woman from Chhattisgarh has alleged she was coerced by Bajrang Dal activists into giving a false statement in a case that led to the arrest of two Catholic nuns and one other person on charges of forced conversion and human trafficking.
She also claimed the arrested individuals were innocent and had not forced her into any religious or employment arrangement.
The 21-year-old woman, Kamleshwari Pradhan from Kukrajhor village in Narayanpur’s Abujhmad region, said she had been preparing to travel to Agra voluntarily, with her parents’ full consent.
According to her, she was headed to Bhopal for a job at a Christian-run hospital, where she had been offered Rs. 10,000 per month along with food, clothing, and accommodation.
Pradhan said the nuns—Preethi Mary and Vandana Francis from Kerala—and their associate Sukhman Mandavi were not known to her before the day of travel.
She said she met them at the Durg railway station on July 25, where she and two other women were waiting for the onward journey.
“At the station, a man approached us and was later joined by more people who identified themselves as members of Bajrang Dal. They began threatening and assaulting us,” she said.
“When the police arrived, we were taken to the GRP station. There, a woman claiming to be a right-wing activist slapped me and threatened that my brother would be jailed if I didn’t say I was being trafficked.”
She alleged that the police failed to document her true statement and instead recorded claims she never made. “Whenever I tried to explain, they asked me to remain quiet,” she said.
Pradhan said she has been a practicing Christian for the past four to five years, along with her family.
She recounted how her mother, once chronically ill, began to recover after attending a Christian prayer service. “Since then, we started following the faith,” she said.
She also defended Mandavi, describing him as a church acquaintance who had informed her about the hospital job.
“He is like a brother to me. Many women from our area have worked in Christian hospitals outside and returned safely,” she added.
The Bajrang Dal, however, has rejected all accusations of coercion or violence. Ravi Nigam, a local functionary, said, “We neither threatened nor assaulted anyone. CCTV footage from the station will clarify the facts.”
The three accused were arrested by the Government Railway Police based on a complaint filed by Bajrang Dal, which alleged the women were being trafficked for religious conversion.
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However, the accused claimed that the women were already Christians and there was no element of coercion or conversion.
The case has stirred political debate, with opposition parties like the Congress and CPI(M) condemning the arrests as politically motivated.
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai dismissed the criticism, accusing the opposition of exploiting the incident for political mileage.
On the legal front, a sessions court in Durg said it lacked jurisdiction to hear the bail applications and directed the accused to approach a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court.
