7/29/2025 India (International Christian Concern) — Two Catholic nuns were arrested on July 25 at Durg train station in Chhattisgarh, India, on charges of conversion and human trafficking. A young man who was with them was also arrested.

The nuns, who had three Christian girls with them, were traveling to Agra, a town in northern Uttar Pradesh. The girls were traveling with them to work at a hospital.

Members of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu militant group, learned that the nuns were traveling through the train station through an informant. They accosted the nuns and the girls and pressured railway police to detain them.

Soon, many Christian community members gathered at the train station in support of the nuns and the girls. Eventually, the Hindus and Christians gathered at the station shouted religious phrases, which led to increased tensions between the two sides.

The nuns denied the accusations made against them and produced consent letters given by the parents of the three girls, who were from the Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh. Police, however, allegedly only focused on the accusations of the Bajrang Dal members who accused the nuns of trafficking the tribal girls to convert them.

Police filed charges under Section 143 BNS of human trafficking and Section 4 of the Anti-Conversion Act 1968 against the nuns and the young man. News of the arrest and charges spread throughout India.

K. C. Venugopal, a member of the Lower House of the Indian Parliament and the Opposition Indian National Congress, wrote a letter to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, who belongs to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an avowed Hindu nationalist party that controls Chhattisgarh’s government.

“I write to express my grave concern and unequivocal condemnation of the shocking incident that occurred on July 25, 2025, at Durg Railway Station in Chhattisgarh, where members of the Bajrang Dal unlawfully detained and levelled false allegations against two Catholic nuns and a young man who were accompanying three girls for legitimate employment purposes,” Venugopal said in his letter to the home minister.

Venugopal said that it is deeply disturbing that a group of self-proclaimed vigilantes could create such chaos, incite communal tension, and make unverified accusations of religious conversion and trafficking without any legal basis.

“Even more alarming is the fact that despite clear parental consent and documentation, the authorities have continued to keep the nuns and the young man in custody, reportedly under political pressure,” he added. “This constitutes a blatant miscarriage of justice and a direct attack on the rights and dignity of citizens belonging to minority communities.”

Venugopal urged Shah to ensure that strict legal action is initiated against those who were involved in this unlawful act, including those who incited mob violence and communal hatred. He also requested that law enforcement agencies be instructed to act with impartiality and uphold constitutional rights in all such matters.

Christians have always maintained that the BJP is tacitly supporting all Hindu nationalist groups, which regularly attack religious minorities in India.

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