JALANDHAR: When the National Commission for Women demanded an action-taken report on Friday in a sexual harassment case against ‘Papa’ Bajinder Singh, a self-styled godman, his social media accounts were flooded with images from his recent congregation in Nepal, where lakhs gathered to be “healed” by him. Clad in a sharp black blazer and formal trousers, the 43-year-old ‘prophet’ took the stage by urging the crowd to “raise their hands to thank the Lord.”
Behind him, a long line of people held placards declaring how Singh had “cured” them. Among them were a young man who arrived in a wheelchair with an oxygen cylinder and an elderly woman once on a stretcher—both now walking “after the miraculous healing.” Afterwards, Singh placed his hands on the foreheads of his followers to “evict evil” from them, causing many to collapse and shake violently. He has also claimed to cure serious ailments, including cancer, paralysis, severe skin diseases, snake bites, and infertility.
The miracle man may now need divine intervention to save himself after a 22-year-old former disciple from Punjab’s Kapurthala accused him of sending inappropriate text messages and touching her inappropriately.
But criminal cases, it seems, are nothing new for Singh, one of the most prominent Christian pastors from the Pentecostal church, with lakhs of followers especially in north India. He was previously arrested in a rape case, which is still being heard in a Mohali court. He also spent 18 months in jail allegedly in a murder case. It was during this time in prison that Singh converted to Christianity.
On his website, Singh claims that “some evil forces harassed him from the eighth grade,” eventually leading to his imprisonment, where he “tried to die by suicide due to depression.” He recounts that in jail, he took the names of all gods but was still tormented by these forces—until someone gave him a Bible. Singh claims that after a pastor’s prayer, he miraculously recovered within two hours when his hemoglobin level had “dropped to 7g (/dL)”.
Following what he calls his “acquittal by the Lord,” Singh founded the Church of Glory and Wisdom, now one of the three largest private churches in and around Jalandhar, Punjab. Unlike Pastor Harpreet Deol, whose church is in Khojewala on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road, and ‘Apostle’ Ankur Narula, whose church is in Khambra on the Nakodar road, Singh arrived from Chandigarh and established his ministry in Tajpur, a few kilometers from Narula’s church.
Christians make up about 1.3% of Punjab’s population, according to the 2011 census. In Jalandhar, where the total population is 2,193,590, only 1.2% identify as Christian.
Singh has also faced trouble from the Income Tax department which raided his and Harpreet Deol’s churches on January 31, 2023. Undeterred, Singh “prophesied” on Facebook a day later that those who attended his online prayer session would overcome financial crises within seven days, see their businesses thrive, and return with their “big testimonies”.
Then, on February 5, at his weekly congregation in Tajpur, he declared, “Badnaam hue to kya hua, naam to hai,” claiming a rival ministry orchestrated the raid. He further “prophesied” that his ministry would become the largest in the world. His website boldly asserts it is already the “World’s no 1 ministry.”
Following the recent sexual harassment allegations, Singh once again blamed a rival pastor for conspiring against him. After the FIR was registered on February 28 by the Kapurthala police, he claimed it was part of a “scandal” plotted by another pastor.
In a veiled threat after the FIR, Singh remarked, “I request the CM that during elections, you come to us, but now you are registering cases against such big pastors. Another pastor was booked for gang rape,” adding, “In the next election, we shall show the government…”
