By Matters India Reporter

Thanjavur, Jan 21, 2022: A Catholic nun was arrested in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after a 17-year-old girl died by suicide.

The girl took poison January 9 at her hostel at Michaelpatti in Thanjavur district, and died 10 days later.

Sister Sahaya Mary, the 62-year-old hostel warden, was arrested under the Juvenile Act apart from charges of abetting suicide. The place is near Poondi Madha shrine that comes under the diocese of Kumbakonam.

A report in ndtv.com says the girl took poison alleging abuse by her hostel warden and an attempt to convert her family to Christianity.

“In an unverified video that has surfaced after her death, the girl says she may have been harassed and abused because her family refused to convert to Christianity,” the report says.

The ndtv.com report says the news organization could not independently verify the video that surfaced after the girl’s death.

Jesuit Father Arockiasamy Santhanam, spokesperson for the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, says the First Information Report does not mention conversion. “It is the cook up story by the Hindutva elements,” he told Matters India January 21.

According to him, the police had gone to the hospital to collect the girl’s statement.

The priest also explained that the girl had lost her mother eight years ago and her father married another woman.

“She was harassed by the stepmother. Therefore she used to stay with the sisters and during this corona lockdown, she did not want to go home fearing her stepmother’s harassment. She was given food in the convent,” the priest explained.

The hostel is managed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, also known as Pondicherry Blue Sisters, as their headquarters is based in Pondicherry, a Union Territory.

Father Santhanam, a lawyer, says the girl admits in the FIR that she had not revealed the fact that she had consumed poison. “She was taken to the hospital for vomiting continuously,” the priest explained.

He also said that the nun had cooperated with the police after the FIR was registered.

The priest wants the police to register a case against those who misinterpreted the girl’s death.

He said the girl had not gone because of the harassment of the stepmother, who he says a BJP supporter.

“As per the law, any identity of child victims should not be revealed to media including social media. Here news is spread by antisocial elements with the name of the victim in social media. A video is forwarded as if interviewing the victims. Who allowed them to take the interview?” he asks.

In the video, the girl alleged that she was forced to clean the hostel and also do administration and maintenance work, the ndtv.com narrated.

“Two years ago, they asked me and my parents to convert to Christianity. They said they will take care of my education,” the girl says in the video. On a specific question on whether she was targeted for not converting, she says, “Maybe.”

The girl’s parents have demanded an investigation into conversion allegations.

Police officials say neither the girl nor her family had filed any complaint about the alleged conversion.

“We had video recorded her complaint, her statement to the Judicial Magistrate, and her dying declaration. She did not say anything about conversion. Nor did her parents allege this. We are now investigating this allegation also,” Ravali Priya Gandhapuneni, a senior police officer in Thanjavur, told NDTV.

Authorities are looking for the person who filmed the video to verify its authenticity and the motive behind its release. “The minor girl’s identity has been revealed. This is a violation,” the officer said.

The girl’s allegations have taken a political turn with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding an investigation and urging the state’s DMK government to punish those responsible.