Amit Shah’s promise on bail for nuns was not kept: Archbishop

Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplani on Friday said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurance that the Malayali nuns arrested in Chhattisgarh would be granted bail had not materialised.

Addressing the media in Kannur on the sidelines of the protest led by the Thalassery, Kottayam and Kannur dioceses, Archbishop Pamplani said that although Amit Shah had promised that the Chattisgarh government would not oppose the bail plea, the government’s lawyer argued in court that the nuns had committed a non-bailable offence.

He noted that while the country at large acknowledged that the nuns had not done anything wrong, they remained in custody. Citing Central government data, he said forced conversions had not taken place in the country and termed the Prohibition of Forced Conversion Act as a tool to harass individuals like the detained nuns.