NEW DELHI: Complying with the Supreme Court’s directions issued in November last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a status report on Tuesday stating that its probe into the 2022 suicide of a Class 12 student, Lavanya, at Michaelpatti in Thanjavur district found “no evidence of attempts to force religious conversion.”
“The allegations of attempts to convert her to Christianity at the missionary-run Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School could not be substantiated. The harassment by the hostel warden led to the suicide,” the CBI told a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma.
Following the student’s death in 2022, a nationwide controversy erupted after some political leaders alleged that she was pressured to convert to Christianity, a claim earlier rejected by the state police.
The CBI submitted its status report along with the chargesheet in the case.
“Allegations pertaining to attempts at conversion by the convent sisters and teachers of Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Michaelpatti, could not be established,” the chargesheet filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate stated.
The CBI said the student, who was staying in the school hostel, referred in her video statement only to the harassment she allegedly faced from Sister Sagaya Mary, the hostel warden.
The agency submitted that the warden had continuously subjected the girl to mental stress by making her handle hostel accounts work, which affected her studies. “Faced with sustained harassment and exploitation, the girl took the extreme step,” the CBI said.
The agency has held Sagaya Mary culpable for offences under Section 305 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act.
It may be recalled that the Madras HC transferred the probe to the CBI in 2022, observing that the conversion angle was not improbable and faulting the state for ruling it out.
Subsequently, the state government challenged the order in the apex court, which refused to stay the CBI investigation.