Nuns went to railway station for young women’s safety, says Malayali priest
Fr Sabu was the first person to speak to the nuns after they were taken into custody by the Chhattisgarh police from Durg railway station.
Fr Sabu was the first person to speak to the nuns after they were taken into custody by the Chhattisgarh police from Durg railway station.
Fr Sabu was the first person to speak to the nuns after they were taken into custody by the Chhattisgarh police from Durg railway station.
Vandana Francis and Preethi Mary, the Christian nuns currently lodged in a jail in Chhattisgarh, violated no law, said Father Sabu Joseph Muriyamveli, who is attached to the Raipur Catholic Archdiocese.
In fact, they had reached Durg railway station only to ensure the safety of the three young women accompanying them, the priest added. Fr Sabu was the first person to speak to the nuns after they were taken into custody by the Chhattisgarh police from Durg railway station.
The vicar of St Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Sector 6, Bhilai, Fr Sabu, belongs to Ayamkudi, Kaduthuruthy in Kottayam. He has been serving in Chhattisgarh for the last 35 years.
“Last Friday, a fellow priest of the Christian community informed me about the sisters from Kerala at the station. I immediately reached there and saw a group of local people around the nuns. The crowd was teasing and threatening the holy sisters. However, I did not notice the people physically harming the nuns,” said Fr Sabu.
The priest spoke to the nuns in the presence of the police. “The three young women – all of them adults – had come to the railway station with a youth. This man had earlier arranged many other women to work for the nuns. All the necessary documents, including the consent letters, related to the young women were carried by the holy sisters. The nuns told me that they had travelled 12 hours to Durg only considering the safety of the young women,” he said.
According to Fr Sabu, the nuns were charged with serious offences such as human trafficking and forcible religious conversion following pressure from certain local people and political parties.
Vandana and Preethi are nuns belonging to the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate congregation who have been serving in Chhattisgarh for several years. “The humanitarian work of the sisters among poor tribal people (adivasis) is not human trafficking,” said Fr Sabu.
He informed that 70 churches function under the Raipur archdiocese. “There are 315 devotees under St Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, where I serve. Most of the laity members are adivasis,” said Fr Sabu.