A 21-year-old woman Kamleshwari Pradhan — one of the three tribal women the Keralite nuns jailed in Chhattisgarh are accused of trafficking — has alleged that she was coerced and tortured by Bajrang Dal members to give a false statement while also blaming the police for changing her version.
Nuns Preethi Mary and Vandana Francis along with Narayanpur resident Sukhman Mandavi were charged with trafficking and forcibly converting these women, and subsequently arrested at Durg Railway station after a Bajrang Dal member Ravi Nigam lodged a complaint against them.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat terms arrest of nuns in Chhattisgarh a ‘manufactured case’
Denying these allegations, Ms. Pradhan, who is now back in her home district of Narayanpur, told presspersons on Thursday (July 31, 2025) that she had conveyed as much to the police but her statement was not recorded properly.
“They assaulted us and said that if we did not say what they wanted us to, then they would put my brother and the sisters [the arrested nuns] in jail,” she said, in response to a question on what the Bajrang Dal members did to them on the day of the arrest.
