RAIPUR: Three women from Bastar’s Narayanpur district have lodged a complaint with the Chhattisgarh State Women’s Commission, alleging physical and mental harassment by Bajrang Dal cadres and Government Railway Police (GRP) at Durg station on July 25, in connection with an alleged human trafficking and forced religious conversion case.
Kamleshwari Pradhan, Lalita Usendi and Sukmati Mandavi submitted their grievances to the commission in Raipur, seeking justice.
On 2 August, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Bilaspur granted bail to two Catholic nuns from Kerala, who had been arrested on charges of human trafficking and religious conversion.
“The women in their complaint against Jyoti Sharma, Ravi Nigam, Ratan Yadav and the GRP Durg incharge alleged they were physically ill-treated, verbally abused and threatened with gang rape in the presence of police personnel,” said Kiranmayee Nayak, Chairperson of the Commission.
During the hearing, the accused named in the complaint did not appear before the Commission. “The complainants have arrived but the respondents have refused to attend. So, according to our laid down procedures, we will inform them through the concerned police station asking them to be present during the next hearing,” Nayak said.
She added that the GRP Durg incharge will also be summoned to attend the proceedings.
Commission members conducted preliminary questioning of the three girls, who said they expected a fair and impartial hearing. The Chairperson has also sought detailed information on the 25 July incident, including CCTV footage, from the Durg district police chief.
The women had earlier filed a complaint with the Narayanpur superintendent of police against Bajrang Dal activists. They stated that they were willingly travelling with the nuns to Agra to take up work in a hospital, and that they had converted to Christianity around six years ago.
“The Bajrang Dal cadres forcibly stopped the girls at Durg station and assaulted them with abusive remarks. All three were very scared and remain in shock after the incident,” relatives of the women claimed, demanding an FIR against Jyoti Sharma and other Bajrang Dal members “so that such alleged incidents should not happen again.”