India Celebrity Pastor Faces Life In Prison For Rape

Typically, tens of thousands of churchgoers gather each Sunday morning at Church of Glory and Wisdom, a five-acre compound in Tajpur village in Punjab state, to hear from Bajinder Singh.

Millions more watch his YouTube videos, which show the megachurch pastor allegedly healing people in wheelchairs and prophesying over them.

Yet since late March, the services have continued without Singh, whom followers call “prophet” and “papaji” (ji is an honorific). That’s because on March 28, a Punjab court found him guilty of raping a woman in 2018 and sentenced him to life in prison.

Days after Singh’s sentencing, news outlets reported allegations that another Punjab pastor, Jashan Gill, had raped a 22-year-old student who attended his church in Gurdaspur. According to her father, the pastor also forced her to undergo an abortion, causing an infection that led to her death.

The two cases came after a woman in the Punjab city of Fatehgarh Sahib filed a police complaint in February accusing pastor Faris Masih and four others of gangraping her when she visited his house to collect money that he owed her.

The scandals point to concerns over the recent growth of megachurches in Punjab that are built around charismatic leaders and promote spectacle—often healings or other miracles—over discipleship. The megachurches have also forced smaller churches to close as the larger churches entice congregants away.

Tarsem Peter, a Catholic leader in Punjab’s Jalandhar, noted that some Christian pastors are creating their own deras, independent religious congregations each centered around a guru. In Punjab, deras are traditionally associated with Sikh sects and have often drawn criticism for encouraging personality cults, unorthodox practices, and abuse of power. Now, Peter warns, similar patterns are emerging within Christian communities.

“I do believe Jesus can make miracles happen but not the way the priests in these so-called deras practice,” Peter told The Tribune. “I have had a hunch from the very beginning that the Christian dera culture would go the same way as with other religious deras.”

Singh is a member of Haryanvi Jat, a wealthy and influential people group in northern India. According to Singh’s testimony, he was harassed by evil spirits when he was young, joined the wrong crowd, and ended up in prison after he was implicated in a murder case. He fell ill, only to recover after a pastor prayed for him. Through his experience, he became a Christian and began his ministry in 2012 after leaving prison.

Always sharply dressed in blazers and dress pants, Singh built a massive social media following through his dramatic healings. During his services, he would lay hands on people said to be suffering from serious conditions—blindness, chronic illness, or demon possession. Many would tremble, convulse, and then declare they’d been miraculously cured.

As his profile grew, Singh cultivated relationships with celebrities, regularly hosting Bollywood stars, such as Shakti Kapoor, Prem Chopra, and Jaya Prada, at his Christmas celebrations. At the gatherings, Singh would make prophecies about them and pray for them as cameras rolled.

Singh and his inner circle promoted stories of his alleged miracles on social media. His Facebook page banner is a picture of him in front of screenshots of his services and the words World’s No. 1 Ministry in glittering gold and silver. His ministry expanded beyond Jalandhar to include locations near Chandigarh as well as 260 branches in countries including Canada, US, UK, and Dubai.

Yet in 2018, a woman who volunteered at Singh’s church filed a complaint against Singh, claiming that he had repeatedly raped her after he promised to help send her abroad. She alleged that Singh first raped her in September 2017 at his rented apartment in Chandigarh, filmed the assault, and used the footage to blackmail her. Police arrested Singh at the Delhi airport in 2018 while he was attempting to flee to London. After securing bail, he returned to his preaching ministry. Finally, on March 28 of this year, the court convicted him and a few days later sentenced him to life in prison.

In the past few years, Singh has made headlines for other allegations, including financial mismanagement, sexual assault, and physical assault, as well as charging families of the sick hundreds of dollars for prayers and healings.

Singh’s conviction prompted divergent responses within Punjab’s Christian community. While many leaders from Catholic and mainline Protestant denominations, including the Church of North India, have distanced themselves, others have rallied to his defense.

Some of Singh’s supporters—such as Hamid Masih of the Punjab Christian Movement—described Singh’s conviction as an attack on the Christian faith. Sukhwinder Raja, pastor of an independent church from Amritsar, called Singh’s opponents “cubs of fox” and warned, “God will slap them. … They will face the wrath of God; rather, their generations will face it.”

One female pastor from Punjab, who asked for anonymity amid government persecution of Christians, told CT, “We must forgive him and pray that he would confess and come clean.” She added that the faith of his many followers is at stake.

Singh’s ministry did not emerge in a vacuum. Punjab has weathered profound trauma in recent decades: an insurgency that claimed thousands of lives in the 1980s and ’90s, agricultural distress that has pushed many farmers to suicide, and a drug addiction epidemic that devastated communities.

These difficulties created fertile ground for ministries promising immediate divine intervention. “Since the governments have failed to ensure that medical facilities reach the lower sections, the likes of Bajinder have got ample opportunities to proliferate,” Peter told The Tribune.

Many of Singh’s followers are from the Dalit and the poor—people often marginalized within traditional religious structures and desperately seeking solutions to pressing problems.

Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables,” represent nearly a third of Punjab’s population—the highest proportion in any Indian state. Despite legal protections, many still face discrimination. Christianity’s emphasis on equality has historically appealed to Dalit communities across India.

When Singh began his ministry, he tapped into this demographic dynamic. Preaching primarily in Hindi rather than Punjabi, he attracted followers not only from Punjab but also from other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

“The Pentecostal-charismatic movement is drawing adherents primarily from those who have never felt welcome in traditional churches or other religious communities,” explained Paul, a pastor from the north Punjab area. He asked to use only his first name due to security concerns for Christians. “When someone offers them both spiritual experience and social dignity, the appeal is understandable.”

Paul sees Singh as part of a broader pattern that began around 2000, when Southern Indian evangelists such as Paul Dhinakaran brought a charismatic approach modeled after American televangelism to Punjab. Since then, dozens of independent “prophet” figures have established ministries following a similar template: large-scale services focused on healing and breakthrough with a charismatic leader as the central channel of divine power.

According to a 2022 India Today investigation, there may be as many as 65,000 pastors spread across Punjab’s 23 districts. While many operate small, village-level ministries, the most visible are those who, like Singh, have built substantial followings through claims of miraculous powers.

Ankur Narula’s Church of Signs and Wonders in Khambra village exemplifies this approach. His ministry compound spans approximately 100 acres, with 160,000 people attending the Sunday service, according to India Today’s report. A computer engineer by training and the son of a Jalandhar businessman, Narula converted to Christianity in 2004 and has built a ministry with 125 branches within and outside India.

The relationships between these prominent pastors can be competitive. Tensions arose between Singh’s supporters and Narula’s followers in December 2023 after Narula criticized Singh’s Christmas gathering, calling it a “circus ring.” Singh’s followers then held a press conference denouncing Narula’s comments.

Paul noted that while these megachurches create powerful experiences, “they’re less effective at building the day-to-day habits and relationships that transform people over a lifetime.”

Instead of promising that the ministry would develop attendees’ character, a social media post for Singh’s April services promised that attendees would “receive permanent residency wherever they have applied, launch new businesses, achieve financial stability, secure government jobs, experience health improvements, and find matrimonial matches.”

Meanwhile, these megachurches are attracting congregants of smaller churches throughout Punjab, Paul said.

“A decade ago, we had dozens of independent churches serving 50 to 100 people each in this district,” Paul said. “Many have closed because their members left for the mega-ministries. Some pastors have even joined the staff of these larger operations because they couldn’t support their families otherwise.”

The landscape of Christianity in Punjab is increasingly dominated by a few large entities rather than a diverse ecosystem of communities.

Yet some pastors are pushing back against the megachurch model and trying to put systems in place to keep leaders accountable and ensure members are discipled. For instance, R. L. Gupta and his wife, Rajni, lead Siyyon Prayer Tower, a large urban church in Ludhiana. A former schoolteacher, Gupta is meticulous with records and seeks to care for his congregants holistically by offering counseling sessions, care and encouragement for students, and regular community meals. Members also serve the community through free medical camps, literacy programs, and care for the poor and the disadvantaged.

Meanwhile, although Paul’s church is small compared to Singh’s or Narula’s—he has several hundred congregants—it has produced dozens of leaders who are now leading churches and ministries throughout the state, Paul said. He noted that the smaller church size allows for him to know his members by name, understand their struggles, and provide genuine pastoral care.

Some leaders within the megachurch movement have begun to acknowledge the need for more accountability and structure. In 2021, pastor Harpreet Deol formed the Pentecostal Christian Parbandhak Committee (PCPC) to bring independent pastors under a common framework and encourage self-regulation. The committee claims a network of more than 1,000 registered pastors and has since spawned a political party as well.

“The PCPC represents a step in the right direction,” Paul said. “But more fundamental changes may be needed. Ministries built entirely around personalities are inherently vulnerable to those personalities’ failings.”

He believes the most promising path forward would be to combine the evangelistic energy of the larger ministries with the discipleship depth of smaller communities. He envisions networks where central ministries are connected to smaller groups led by trained pastors.

This would allow large gatherings to continue providing inspiration and corporate worship experiences while smaller groups facilitate the personal relationships essential for discipleship.

“The desire for authentic spiritual experience evident in [megachurch] ministries’ appeal is genuine and valuable,” he acknowledged. “The challenge is channeling that hunger into sustainable expressions of faith that don’t depend on single charismatic figures.”

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