Sister Vibha Kerketta, a newly professed nun, and her mother, with four others on alleged conversion charges, were granted bail by the court in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on June 13, 2023.
She was arrested and jailed with her mother and three others the following day after her family organized a Mass at Schoolpara in Balachhapar village, Jashpur district, Chhattisgarh, in thanksgiving for her profession in the Daughters of St Anne, in Ranchi.
Hindu fundamentalists attacked the house, accusing her mother and others of conducting a healing session and insulting other religions. A magistrate jailed the nun and the others and set a bail hearing for June 13.
According to Jesuit Father Fulgence Lakra, a lawyer, "The Sessions Court of Jashpur accepted their bail applications for 15,000 rupees each," they were released in the evening.
As the congregation's superior general, Sister Lily Grace Topno expressed thanks to God, the Church authorities, and their well-wishers.
Following her first vows on December 8, 2022, Sister Kerketta returned home, and her family organized a mass to welcome her home. She followed a local tradition to welcome new priests or nuns by holding a religious service at 6 pm with 60 people.
After the function, the mob came to the house and began questioning the nun and her family about why they became Christians, snatching away their rosaries, tearing a Bible from home, and slapping the nun's mother.
The entire Daughters remembered Sister Kerketta of the St. Anne congregation on June 11.
“With deep sorrow and anxiety, may I request your earnest prayers, sacrifices, and mortifications so that with God's intervention, Sr Vibha Kerketta, DSA, and family members may be released on bail,” said Sister Topno.
Sister Topno and two others visited Sister Kerketta and others in the jail on June 12.
Responding to the police's discriminatory action, nine Catholics met with the Assistant Superintendent of Police of Jashpur on June 10.
A woman can only be arrested in the presence of women police personnel, but "Why were no policewomen present when Sister Kerketta and her mother were arrested?" Why were they taken away at night against the law?” the report asked.
It disputed that the jailed Catholics violated laws prohibiting "deliberate and malicious acts" to offend religious sentiments or promote enmity between groups.
As reported earlier, Sister Kerketta was arrested for an anti-conversion law during her first home visit after her religious profession in Chhattisgarh, India, on June 6, 2023.
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