Pastor Bajinder appears in court for sexual harassment case

Pastor Bajinder Singh appeared in a Mohali court on Tuesday along with six other accused. This follows the issuance of non-bailable warrants against him on March 3 for a sexual harassment case that dates back to 2018. Bajinder runs a church in Majri and was arrested at the Delhi airport in July 2018. He was about to board a flight to London when he was apprehended for allegedly raping a woman from Zirakpur. The pastor's associates, including Jatinder and Sandeep Pehlwan, are linked to the case for allegedly assaulting the same woman. A police team accompanied the accused to the court due to concerns of retaliation from the victim's family. Bajinder is currently out on bail for the Zirakpur case. Recently, another FIR was registered against him for sexual harassment in Jalandhar, but he was not taken into custody for this new case, as police had not been informed about it. The victim, who operates a roadside eatery, stated that she met Bajinder in 2017. She claimed he lured her into his group of volunteers but later raped her at his house in Mohali. Bajinder allegedly filmed the assault and threatened to share the video if she reported it. She filed a complaint in April 2018, leading to the issuance of a lookout notice for Bajinder after he went into hiding. The police have charged him with multiple offenses, including rape and criminal intimidation, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.