Durg court says it has no jurisdiction to hear bail plea of Kerala nuns arrested for `trafficking'

Durg: A sessions court in Chhattisgarh's Durg district on Wednesday said it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the bail application of the three persons including two Catholic nuns from Kerala arrested for alleged human trafficking and illegal conversion.

In their application, the accused claimed that the three tribal girls who were to accompany them to Agra were already following Christianity, and hence there was no question of converting them.

Additional Sessions Judge Anish Dubey, while disposing of the bail pleas, said they will have to move a special court for relief.

"The District and Sessions Court, Durg has not been given the jurisdiction to hear the case under section 11 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, by the State or Central Government with the approval of the Hon'ble Chhattisgarh High Court....this court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the crime shown under the said Act," the court order stated.

Nuns Preethi Mary and Vandana Francis along with Sukaman Mandavi were arrested by the Government Railway Police at Durg railway station on July 25 following a complaint by a local Bajrang Dal functionary who accused them of forcibly converting three women from the state's tribal-dominated Narayanpur district and trafficking them.

The two nuns are currently lodged in the Durg central jail. Their bail application was rejected by a magistrate on Tuesday, after which they moved the sessions court.

The public prosecutor opposed the bail application on the ground that the sessions court does not have the jurisdiction, as special courts established under the NIA Act 2008 have the jurisdiction to hear bail pleas in cases registered under section 143 (human trafficking) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Defence counsel Rajkumar Tiwari contended that if the prosecutor was right, then the judicial magistrate, Durg should not have heard the bail application on Tuesday.

The application submitted that allegations were levelled against the accused on mere suspicion that three girls from Narayanpur district, all of them adult, were being taken to Agra by luring them for conversion.

The girls were going to Agra on their own to work due to poverty and lack of employment in their native place, and they already follow Christianity so there was no question of their conversion, the nuns claimed in the plea.

Defence lawyer Tiwari asked the sessions judge which court they should approach for getting relief.

The court in its order noted that section 370 of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code, 1860, and section 143 of the BNS which includes the crime of "trafficking of a person" are similar.

Section 370 was included in schedule 4 (b) of the NIA Act 2008, which provided for a special court to try the offence, it noted.

Sessions Judges of Bilaspur, Raipur, Jagdalpur and the Additional Sessions Judge in Jagdalpur were given the status of Special Court which can hear such cases, the judge said.

The applicants should submit their application in the appropriate special court designated by the Chhattisgarh Government for hearing the cases under the NIA Act 2008, the order said.