Drug (Chhattisgarh) [India], July 30 (ANI): Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Wednesday visited the Durg Central Jail in Chhattisgarh, where two Kerala-based nuns are currently lodged following their arrest on charges of trafficking and forced religious conversion.

Karat, who was joined by CPI leaders Annie Raja and other members of a party delegation, met the nuns and later condemned the arrests as unjust, calling them part of a 'targeted attack' on the Christian community in the state.

Two Kerala-based nuns were arrested at Durg Railway station in Chhattisgarh on July 25 over charges of human trafficking and religious conversion

Speaking to ANI, Karat said, 'Two nuns who have been serving the poor here for years were jailed today on the basis of a fake allegation and a manufactured lie. A tribal boy who had no fault was also beaten up and jailed today. What kind of law is this that people of Bajrang Dal or any RSS outfit beat those girls and a boy like this in front of the police and law enforcement agencies?'

'They are doing all this under the protection of the government. This is a targeted attack on the Christian community,' Karat added.

CPI further asserted, 'PM Modi goes abroad, embraces everyone and says 'sabka sath sabka vikas'. And here his own people, inspired by his ideology, insult two nuns, beat up tribals because they have adopted Christianity by their own will.'

Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that the party's state unit has reached out to the Chhattisgarh government over the arrest of the two nuns in Durg, clarifying that there has been 'no issue of trafficking or conversion.'

Speaking with ANI, Rajeev Chandrashekhar said, 'We have immediately reached out to the government of Chhattisgarh and clarified that these are nuns who were accompanying three adult women with the consent of their families for jobs and therefore, there was no issue of trafficking nor was there an issue of any conversion.'

Chandrashekhar remains hopeful that the Chhattisgarh government will take the necessary steps.

'I am hopeful that the government of Chhattisgarh will deliver justice to these two nuns who have been charged with this.'

Meanwhile, the Opposition has targeted BJP after the arrest, accusing it of targeting Christian minorities and suppressing legitimate rights.

Speaking to the media in Durg, senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said, 'We wrote a letter to the CM and also raised this issue in the Lok Sabha, and we all gave statements against it. A delegation of MPs and MLAs from Kerala had come to meet them, but they were told to come tomorrow because a BJP delegation is in Raipur, so they were not allowed to meet. I told the DG that they should be allowed to meet; otherwise, we will stage a sit-in here. Now their meeting has happened.'

In Delhi, veteran Congress MP K. Suresh blamed right-wing elements for orchestrating the incident. 'After the BJP came to power in Chhattisgarh, the Christian minorities are attacked every day by Bajrang Dal with the support of the BJP government. Two days ago, two girls came with consent to join the nuns for work. But the Bajrang Dal decided that these nuns had taken two girls for conversion from Hinduism to Christianity. So they attacked the nuns. After that, the Chhattisgarh Police filed an FIR. The two innocent nuns and those girls are in jail,' he said.

On July 27, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) strongly condemned the alleged incident, claiming that, according to reports, the women had explicit written permission from their parents but were physically assaulted after being arrested. (ANI)