I-T dept raids premises linked to 2 Punjab pastors

It is learnt that around 50 I-T sleuths in various teams conducted parallel raids in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Amritsar, New Chandigarh, Mohali, Kurali, etc., and seized documents pertaining to properties, bank accounts, and other relevant papers.

I-T sources said that they received information that the pastors have been running churches in the name of healing ministries, which are self-styled churches, receiving huge funding from foreign countries. These are registered either as independent religious bodies or under some societies run by a pastor.

“They have seized some documents, computers, and registers where the attendance is registered or the online bookings are recorded for attending the religious congregations,” said an insider at Tajpur ministry.

Pastor Bajinder Singh hails from a Jat family in Haryana. The Tajpur church has around 15 branches, including eight in Punjab and seven outside Punjab – in Canada, the USA, the UK, Dubai, Bihar, Mumbai and Kolkata – and it claims to have lakhs of followers.

Pastor Harpreet Deol hails from a Jatt Sikh family. The Open Door Church also has several branches.

These ministries have been built on sprawling campuses.

As the two pastors are said to have a huge number of followers, a squad of paramilitary force had accompanied the I-T teams as a precautionary measure.

A few months ago, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh without taking the name of any church had said that some so-called Christian Missionaries have come up in the state with foreign funding and they are targeting Sikhs and Hindus from Backward Classes and converting them into Christians.

The mainline churches, including the Diocese of Jalandhar under the Roman Catholic Church, have said that there are no “forced conversions” under Catholic Church, and the self-styled churches are indulging in all this

Talking to The Indian Express, Sanjiv Kumar Kaura aka Laddu ji, the chairman of the Tajpur church, said that the I-T teams spent around four hours at the Jalandhar-based church and other centres.

“Our every penny is accounted for as we pay income tax. We don’t demand anything from anyone as people donate when their wishes come true,” said Laddu ji.

On the allegations of conversion or baptisation, he said, “We only baptise. We don’t ask people to change their name or religion. They are free to practise anything, but their heart lies with the church because they are freed from their miseries after coming here,” he added.

How do these ministry churches work?

Like these two churches, several such churches have come up in Punjab in the past over a decade where day-long congregations take place four to five times a week. They are attended by thousands of people and their number is increasing with every passing year. They are allegedly “baptising” people in huge numbers, claiming miracle cure for cancer, AIDS, kidney failure, heart failure and people’s sufferings. They also claim to fulfil any wish of individuals like providing jobs to the unemployed, blessing the childless with children, and so on.

In these congregations, which are also telecasted live or recorded on the channels of these pastors, testimonies of the people are one of the major sessions along with other sessions like prayers, healing, prophesies, etc.

“The basic purpose of these testimonies is to impress upon the people, who attend first time any religious congregation physically or online, the miracles of the prophets,” said one of the volunteers of Tajpur church.

The congregation starts with prayers where devotional songs are sung with proper orchestra. Both performers and the audience dance to the tunes of such songs and this continues for more than 30 minutes. Raising hands and jumping is the usual style of every performer. And then a stylish, well-dressed person appears and starts “gawahi (testimony) sessions” followed by a healing session with well-dressed, stylish ‘prophets’.

These churches are earning a huge amount from the offerings made by people in India and abroad. Also, they sell some oil and soaps to the people which they claim will cure people’s physical and mental ailments and bring prosperity in their life.

These churches claim that they do charity in the form of donating money for the education of the poor, providing healthcare to the needy, organising ‘langars’ (community food) for the poor, etc.

People from all religions come to these congregations. Most of them are poor, Dalits and not much educated. Many come because they are poor.

Tarsem Peter, a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC) of the Diocese of Jalandhar, which comes under the mainline Catholic Churches, said that Catholic Churches have nothing to do with these new ministry churches in the state as they are working independently.

He said that Dalits come to these places because they are ignored by the people of their religion. About the miracle of healing, Tarsem Peter said that he can’t say anything about healing meetings by these churches as he has never attended any such session.

Becoming a pastor in a Roman Catholic Church is a long process, but here anyone can become one by opening his/her ministry, said a senior official of Jalandhar Diocese.