Three people have been arrested for breach of peace and misbehaviour in connection with the harassment of two Kerala nuns and two postulates in Uttar Pradesh. The four women were taken off an express train and detained for questioning by the railway police in Jhansi on March 19 after local Bajrang Dal activists complained that the two women were allegedly being taken forcibly for religious conversion.
"On Thursday night, during patrolling on the station, GRP SHO Sunil Kumar Singh got information that two persons were arguing with policemen near the booking hall," Circle Officer, Government Railway Police (GRP), Neem Khan Mansuri, said on Friday. They were threatening to launch an agitation claiming that the police did not act properly in the case and let the nuns go, he said. No action had been taken against the two earlier in the case, Mansuri said.
However, after this, Anchal Arjaria and Purukes Amraya, both members of a Hindu outfit, were arrested for breach of peace and for misbehaving with the nuns, he said. Later, Ajay Shankar Tiwari, on whose complaint the nuns were taken off the train for questioning, was also arrested.
All three were produced before a local magistrate from where they were shifted to a jail for 14 days. After the issue came to light last month, police had said there was no basis in the complaint by the Bajrang Dal activists and all four women took the next train to their destination in Odisha.
The Syro Malabar Church in Kerala has alleged that it was a ‘planned attack’ as many people had gathered around soon after the issue started. The nuns, travelling from Delhi to Odisha,were also verbally abused. The incident had also triggered a political row in the state.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had strongly condemned the incident. However, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that no such attack has happened and that Kerala CM was making false allegations. This, despite Home Minister Amit Shah acknowledging the incident and saying that culprits would be brought to the law at the earliest.