Two persons were arrested in Jhansi in connection with the harassment of two nuns and their two postulants, who were recently forced to de-board from a train after Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members accused them of illegal conversion.
However, the police and the administration did not make it clear if the arrests were directly linked to the particular incident on March 19 as the action appeared to be a preventive measure against future protests planned by the arrested persons.
Andra Vamsi, the District Magistrate (DM) of Jhansi, on Friday said the arrested persons belonged to a fringe group called Rashtrabhakt Sangh formed by one of the accused. Mr. Vamsi said they had no present connection with any mainstream outfit.
In the incident of de-boarding of the nuns and adolescents from coach B-2 of the Utkal Express at Jhansi Railway Station on March 19, the Railway Police along with the district administration, took stringent action against the involved, the administration said in a statement.
The arrested persons were identified as Anchal Arjaria and Purgesh Amaria. “Proceedings against others involved is in the pipeline,” said the District Information Office, Jhansi.
Mr. Vamsi told The Hindu that “criminal proceedings” were initiated against the two under CrPC Section 151 for “causing discomfort” to the four Christian women. The Section pertains to preventive action.
The two were produced before a magistrate, denied bail and sent to remand, the DM said.
The four women had been briefly detained for questioning at the Jhansi Railway Station and were allowed to proceed with their journey to Odisha only after the enquiry by Railways officials found there was no conversion involved.
Naeem Khan Mansoori, a senior Railways official in Jhansi, said that on Thursday at around 10 p.m. a Railways team on patrol duty at the Jhansi Railway Station came across two people who were found discussing the March 19 incident and saying that the police had not taken proper action against the nuns and had let them off.
“They were questioned regarding it and responded that they would plan protests as there was no proper action in the case. The two were arrested in connection with that,” said Mr. Mansoori.
The Jhansi Railway police had said that some ABVP members travelling back from a training camp in Rishikesh suspected the two nuns of taking the other two women for conversion. The four Christian women were travelling from Nizamuddin in Delhi to Rourkela in Odisha.