Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jul, 2018

The local police on Wednesday arrested a 36-year-old pastor from the Delhi airport on a charge of raping a woman follower, making a video of the act and then blackmailing her by threatening to upload the video on social networking sites.

The arrest has been made on the basis of an FIR lodged on a complaint submitted by a 31-year-old woman of Hoshiarpur on April 20 at the Zirakpur police station.

The self-styled healer, Bajinder Singh, a resident of Sector 63, Chandigarh, was arrested from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London to be part of an event to be held there on July 21. Following his arrest, he was brought to Zirakpur by the police on Wednesday night.

The police produced him before the Judicial Magistrate, Dera Bassi, on Thursday and were granted two-day police remand to interrogate him further. The police have also booked six of his accomplices on the basis of the complaint filed by the victim. They are yet to be arrested.

According to the FIR, the victim, who belongs to Hoshiarpur but is currently putting up at Silver City Heights in Zirakpur, had alleged that she came in contact with Bajinder Singh during one of his “preaching events” at Zirakpur. On September 7, 2017, Bajinder Singh called her up and asked her to meet him at Sethi Dhaba near Zirakpur along with her passport.

The victim said he then took her to his residence at a Housing Board flat in Sector 63, Chandigarh, where he made physical relations with her without her consent.

She alleged that he also made a video of the act and had been exploiting and blackmailing her by threatening to upload her pictures and the video on social working sites.

The woman told the police that the pastor asked her to arrange money if she wanted to go abroad with him. She said when she refused, the pastor threatened her saying that if she did not agree to his demands, he would post her video on the social media.

The victim alleged that fearing social stigma, she then contacted Jatinder Pal Singh of Kharar and introduced him to Bajinder Singh. He arranged Rs 3 lakh and gave it to the pastor on December 12, 2017, on the consent of the victim.

According to the complaint, Jatinder further contacted his two accomplices, who were keen on going abroad and paid Rs 3 lakh to the pastor. However, the pastor did not send Jatinder Pal and his two friends abroad and neither returned their money, the victim alleged in her complaint.

When she requested the pastor to delete her video as she had fulfilled all his demands, he called her to his palace at Chhat village and allegedly thrashed and abused her along with six other accomplices.

She said the pastor again threatened to upload her video when she asked him to return Jatinder’s money as the latter was pressuring her as he had given it with her consent.

Fed up with the harassment, the victim lodged a complaint with the police on April 20 this year following which an FIR was registered against Bajinder Singh and his six accomplices. The others booked are Jatinder (pastor), Akbar, Sataar Ali, Sucha Singh, Rajesh Chaudhary and Sandeep Pehalwan.

Pawan Kumar, SHO, Zirakpur, said Bajinder Singh was untraceable after the incident following which the police issued a lookout circular as he had a valid passport and could go out of the country to avoid his arrest.

Police sources said the victim was part of the security team, comprising mostly women, who accompanied the pastor during his preaching events. Harman Hans, ASP, Dera Bassi, said, “The police have procured two-day remand of the pastor. He is being interrogated.”

Asked if the pastor had abused any other woman follower, the ASP said they could not rule out anything at the moment.