BANGALORE, India — For the first time in Indian history, a Catholic nun has been imprisoned for converting Hindus to Christianity.
Sister Vrishi Ekka was sentenced to six months imprisonment and jailed soon after the verdict was pronounced on July 18 by a court in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh.
The 56-year old Ursuline nun, who is now in Ambikapur Jail, was charged with violating the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (1969). The law requires all conversions to be reported to the District Collector, who is the highest administrative official in a district.
“It is sad and shocking that a religious woman is the first one to be victimized under the controversial law,” said Father Henry D’Souza, executive secretary of the Social Communications Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.
The case against Sr. Ekka was first registered in 1994 in a First Information Report filed with the police, when 94 people from 19 Hindu families converted to Christianity.
A Belgian missionary, Father Louis Birje, was also charged under the same law.
In 1996, the nun and the priest were convicted by a lower court and sentenced to six months imprisonment. They were also required to pay a fine of 500 rupees. Ekka appealed and was released on bail. Fr. Birje died during the course of the case.
However, on July 18, the nun's appeal was turned down by the Ambikapur court, which upheld the lower court order.
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