Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the arrest of two nuns from Kerala at the Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh reflected a “dangerous pattern” of “systematic persecution of minorities” under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

The nuns and a man were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of human trafficking and religious conversion.

Gandhi said that they had been “targeted for their faith”.

“This is not justice, it is BJP-RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] mob rule,” Gandhi said in a social media post. “Religious freedom is a constitutional right. We demand their immediate release and accountability for this injustice.”

However, BJP leader Sanjay Shrivastava dismissed Gandhi’s statement as “pressure politics”.

“This country has a constitution, laws and rules,” The Indian Express quoted Shrivastava as saying. “If he thinks someone has gone against the Constitution then he should approach the court. If anyone violates the conversion law then stringent action will be taken.”

On Monday, MPs from Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front and Opposition United Democratic Front held a joint protest outside Parliament, denouncing the “minority-hate-fuelled” arrest of the nuns on “trumped-up” charges.

The nuns – Preeti Mary and Vandana Francis – are members of the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate, a congregation under the Syro-Malabar Church in Alappuzha district’s Cherthala town and were working at a hospital in Agra.

The two nuns and the man, identified as Sukhman Mandavi, were accompanying three women from Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district.

Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of the Raipur Archdiocese said that the nuns were taking the women to Agra, where they had been offered jobs of kitchen helpers at a convent.

The nuns and Mandavi were remanded to judicial custody till August 8. They were charged under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to human trafficking and sections of the Chhattisgarh Religious Freedom Act.

Commenting on the arrests, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India alleged that a “false” case had been filed against the nuns under the influence of Hindutva groups, Onmanorama reported.

The bishops’ conference sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the matter.