Tamil Nadu’s Lavanya Case: Communal narrative vs Evidence | LME 116 | Pooja Prasanna
Four years ago, a teenager in Tamil Nadu was dying.
As she was on her death bed- the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Munnani and the BJP closed in.
Not for justice,
But to create a narrative.
One that would make Hindus feel persecuted.
And would turn Christians into enemies.
That narrative was amplified for years by these political actors.
Now, the CBI has dismantled it.
The CBI has told the SC that there is no evidence that Lavanya was pressured to convert.
She died by suicide after abuse by a nun at her school.
And the most chilling finding
While she lay dying, she was made to record video after video.
Until she said what the they wanted
Let Me Explain
17-year-old Lavanya from Thanjavur was hospitalised on Jan 15 after consuming pesticide
In the next 4 days, 5 videos were recorded at her hospital bed
Three of them by Hindutva activists
The first video was her statement to the local police on the afternoon of January 15
In that video, Lavanya said hostel warden Sagaya Mary tortured her by forcing extra work and caused severe stress
Not a word about conversion
Then entered Muthuvel P, district secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Ariyalur
A relative contacted him
He recorded Lavanya’s video on January 17 afternoon
Again, Lavanya spoke about the abuse and how a top-scoring student like her could no longer focus on studies
The CBI notes:
“Lavanya did not say anything about any attempt by the sister to convert her to Christianity.”
This was clearly not enough
Muthuvel returned to the ward half an hour later.
Let me pause here and remind you.
Communal narratives are easy to parrot.
Questioning them is harder.
At The News Minute, we chose the harder path.
In 2022, Sudipto Mondal reported how the VHP used Lavanya’s death to push a conversion narrative.
In 2024, Shabbir Ahmed broke the story that the CBI had rejected that claim in court.
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Since Lavanya did not mention conversion in her first video recorded at 3.00 pm on January 17, 2022, the VHP leader returned to the ward and recorded another video at 3.26 pm
This was shorter
In it, Lavanya said another nun in her school had asked her parents to convert her and promised to take care of her studies
The CBI noted this allegation was new - never mentioned earlier by Lavanya or her family
Two more videos were recorded
One was shot by Esani Sivam, a Hindu Munnani member, on the night of January 17
This video was deleted from his phone and later recovered forensically
In it too, Lavanya spoke about the abuse in school - not conversion
The final video was recorded on January 18 by a child welfare officer
Again, Lavanya spoke about her ordeal in the hostel
Not conversion
Muthuvel’s first video - where Lavanya never mentioned conversion - was never publicised by the VHP or the BJP
Instead, the second video - the only one where conversion is mentioned - was tweeted by BJP leader Annamalai on January 20, a day after Lavanya died
What followed were protests by the BJP, ABVP and others
The CBI also concluded that Lavanya’s parents were under the influence of VHP and BJP leaders. These men asked Lavanya’s parents not to accept her body and instead participate in protests
Now the question often asked is
What if there really was forced conversion in the school
The CBI examined this in detail
It reviewed all students who lived in St Michael’s Home for Girls or studied at Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti from 2010 onward
It found no evidence of any one converting to Christianity- forget forced conversion
What the Lavanya case illustrates is simple
Death can be used as political leverage
Narratives can be manufactured to trigger communal tension
And lies travel faster than truth
Almost every time, no one is held accountable
Forget accountability - in a functioning democracy, political leaders would at least apologise
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