The Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) dispatched separate top-level political delegations to Chhattisgarh to parley with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for the early release of the two Keralite nuns arrested on “questionable charges” of forced conversion, human trafficking and kidnapping at the Durg Railway station last Friday.
The controversial arrests, which prompted bipartisan protests in Kerala, occurred after Bajrang Dal workers mobbed sisters Preeta Mary and Vandana Francis of the order of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate (ASMI) at the station, accusing them of spiriting away three women, including a tribal community member, to Agra for conversion.
Nuns are innocent, say family members of tribal women
Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas told The Hindu that Brinda Karat, party’s Polit Bureau member and one of the founders of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), would lead the LDF delegation.
Kerala Congress chairperson Jose K. Mani, MP, K. Radhakrishnan, MP, A.A. Rahim, MP, and P.P. Suneer, MP, will accompany her. Mr. Brittas said the delegation would reach Chhattisgarh later in the day.
