ASHISHPURI
April 24,Kapurthala :The district police have arrested a 42-year-old self-styled preacher and pastor Bajinder Singh on charges of sexual harassment and stalking.
Bajinder, who is serving a life imprisonment till death in a 2018 rape case, was brought from Mansa jail on a production warrant late night on Wednesday.
Deputy superintendent of police Deep Karan Singh said Bajinder was produced in the local court, which sent him to a judicial custody.
According to a complaint filed by a 22-year-old woman on February 28, the pastor allegedly sent inappropriate messages and touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions since 2020.
Referred to as ‘Papa’ by his followers, Bajinder owns the Church of Glory and Wisdom at Jalandhar’s Tajpur and New Chandigarh, besides having 20 such branches across India and 12 overseas.
The DSP said the sections of POCSO act were added in the earlier registered FIR on February 28 under sections 354A(sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
It may be mentioned that Kapurthala’s senior superintendent of police Gaurav Toora had constituted three-member special investigation team for detailed investigation into the matter. Here it is also mentioned that renewed criminal advocate Rajiv puri appeared in court in favour of preacher Bajinder Singh with his strong arguments .