A Catholic nun was detained with 19 minors in India on Friday.

The incident happened at the Tatanagar railway station in Jamshedpur in the state of Jharkhand.

A joint team of the RPF (Railway Protection Force) and GRP (Government Railway Police) took place followed a complaint from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which was alleging the minors were being trafficked.

VHP and Bajrang Dal members claimed the nun planned to employ the minors in the village of Karandih and convert them.

Father Birendra Tete, Director of Catholic Charities Jamshedpur, clarified the minors were invited for a two-day training program on adolescent health and skill development at their Catholic charity center in Sundernagar.

Due to missing identity cards and parental consent, complications arose. After interrogation, the nun, staff, and minors were released and escorted to the Catholic Charities center. The training program continued as planned, concluding on Sunday.

Tate stated the police had no issues except the conversion allegations from VHP and Bajrang Dal and that they plan to respond to the allegations.

Father Alwin C.V., the Vicar General of the Jamshedpur Diocese said he rushed to the railway station when he heard of the incident on Friday night.

“It appears that in the train itself someone had informed the VHP that Sister is bringing some girls with her. The VHP President and some others and a gang were all waiting at the platform. They did not allow the children to come out from that place,” he told Crux.

He said after hours in the police station, those detained were released, but the Hindu nationalists said they would continue with their complaint of “conversion.”

“The next day they formed different groups and the case was handed over to the ‘childline’ committee. The committee had come for inspection. There were also other groups within the town [that also came]. Then the Dalit group had come, the Sikhs had come. There is a United forum for peace and justice in the town; they too had come,” the priest said.

“They interacted with the children, interacted with the resource person. They expressed that this was an unfortunate incident that has happened and are not happy with the situation. The children too were not happy as they were not allowed to move and kept on the railway platform in the cold. They were not even allowed to use the washrooms. They wanted to give them a small room all night with no ventilation,” he told Crux.

“The children themselves were explaining to them that they had come for the program and had come earlier too and that they know this institution and still the VHP was not listening to them. Finally, they conducted the program for two days and yesterday all the children went back to their own villages,” he explained.

Jharkhand state has a large proportion of India’s marginalized tribal people, who exist outside of Hinduism’s traditional caste system, and many of them become Christian – Jharkhand has a Christian population of over 4 percent, double the national average.

The state is currently ruled by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has previously ruled the state. The BJP is the ruling party of India, and is a promoter of Hindu nationalism – and religious minorities often accuse it of discrimination.