A Mohali Court on Tuesday sentenced controversial pastor Bajinder Singh, known for his viral videos of faith healing and singing “Mera Yashu Yashu…” to life imprisonment in a 2018 rape case.
Advocate Anil Sagar, who represented the sexual assault survivor, expressed his satisfaction with the quantum of sentence.
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“He was popular as a spiritual leader. His followers used to call him ‘Papa ji’. When this kind of crime is committed by such a person, an exemplary punishment must be given,” he said after the verdict.
“We are satisfied with the quantum of sentence, which is life imprisonment. He has to stay behind bars until his last breath…,” Sagar added.
The court had earlier found Singh, a self-proclaimed Christian pastor, who runs The Church of Glory and Wisdom at Tajpur in Jalandhar and one in Majri in Mohali, Punjab, guilty in the rape case.
Singh, 42, had been convicted under Sections 376 (rape), 323 (punishment for voluntary causing hurt), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The court had found him guilty of raping a woman in Sector 63 in Mohali on the pretext of helping her getting settled abroad in 2018.
Those acquitted in the case include Jatinder Kumar and Akbar Bhatti, both pastors, Rajesh Chaudhary, Sandeep Pehlwan, and Sitar Ali.
They, along with Bajinder, were named as accused in the FIR lodged in 2018 at Zirakpur Police Station.
Bajinder Singh had been arrested on July 20, 2018, from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, while attempting to flee to London.
In February this year, the pastor was booked for allegedly assaulting a woman. A purported video of the incident had also gone viral on social media. In the footage, Singh was seen arguing with the woman before suddenly losing his temper and striking her.
