Pritima Baghowar, the aspirant nun, was rushed to a nearby government hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead on April 13, according to officials from the Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Diocese of Satna, which oversees the victim’s convent.
However, police detained Father Noby George of the local diocesan seminary, who helped get the girl to the hospital “following pressure from Hindu groups,” according to Father Jesbin Mathew, the diocesan public relations officer.
George rushed the girl to the hospital after the nuns reported noticing “a weak pulse when they took her down” from the ceiling fan, Mathew told UCA News on April 14.
As the news spread, Hindu groups alleged foul play. Under pressure, the police detained George, Mathew said.
Satna is a town in Madhya Pradesh, a central Indian state recognized as a hotbed for anti-Christian attacks and harassment.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-Hindu party, governs the state.
Mathew said the girl came from Dibrugarh in the northeastern Indian state of Assam and joined the congregation of Preshitharam (Mission Garden) Sisters a year ago.
A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told UCA News on April 14 that George “was taken into custody due to pressure from Hindu activists.”
“No charges have been filed against the priest,” the official said. They intend to hold George in custody “until the parents arrive to claim the body following a post-mortem examination.”
“We will have to examine the case from all aspects,” the officer said without elaborating.
Mathew said the girl was found hanging around 5 p.m. on April13. “She showed no sign of depression or tension even when she joined others for evening tea at four,” Mathew told UCA News.
When she went missing, her companion searched and "found her hanging from a ceiling fan in a room,” the priest said.
The Preshitharam congregation, which began in the Eastern rite Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese about 60 years ago, has nuns working in Satna diocese and welcomes local girls to join them.
Missioners frequently encounter resistance from Hindu groups, who perceive missionary activities as a ruse for religious conversion.
The state has enacted a draconian anti-conversion law that criminalizes religious conversion through allurement, force, coercion, and fraudulent methods.
Bishops, priests, and nuns are among those charged with violating legal provisions by working to uplift poor people through their schools, orphanages, and hostels.
Christians make up 0.27 percent of Madhya Pradesh’s more than 72 million people, with more than 70 percent practicing Hinduism. About 21 percent of the Indigenous population follow animist religious traditions.