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Last Update: March 11, 2023, 2:32 pm IST
Gill was arrested on six counts of criminal intimidation after authorities issued a search warrant at his residence. (Photo: ANI)
Former Bakersfield City Council candidate Rajveer Raj Singh Gill was arrested on March 4 for allegedly targeting one of Bakersfield’s largest Sikh places of worship, Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji Khalsa Durbar, and burning property .
According to media reports, a 60-year-old Indian-origin Sikh man in California has been arrested in the US for allegedly trying to get hired to shoot several people and burn down a prominent gurdwara.
Former Bakersfield City Council candidate Rajveer Raj Singh Gill was charged with targeting one of Bakersfield’s largest Sikh places of worship, Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji Khalsa Durbar, and burning property on March 4, reports Bakersfield.com. Was arrested on the charge.
Gill was arrested on six counts of criminal intimidation after authorities executed a search warrant at his residence, the report said.
Portal 23abc.com reported that the Bakersfield Police Department said that in addition to offering someone money in exchange for burning down the gurdwara, Gill tried to pay to shoot people with whom he was having a dispute. .
Gill had attempted to run for City Council Ward 7 in 2022 against Manpreet Kaur. Kaur won the election and was the first Sikh Punjabi woman elected to the Bakersfield City Council, the report said.
Kaur, who won the seat from Ward 7, released the following statement: “I am aware of the alleged allegations. I am confident that the Bakersfield Police Department is working diligently to keep our community safe and will address the matter accordingly. Sad and scared to hear this news. It is one of our most attended Sikh temples locally. Heartbreaking and unfathomable to hear about the alleged attempt to destroy a place of worship. And they got our information and everything and asked questions and we told them what was going on, and that’s when everything happened,” said Amrik Singh Athwal, a member of the temple board.
A spokeswoman for the Bakersfield Police Department declined Tuesday to say what might have motivated Gill to commit the actions he is accused of, and he would not elaborate on the case.
A temple elder said Tuesday that Gill appeared at the property in recent months to disrupt prayers and threaten members of the congregation and at one point carried a gun before being arrested. There is no record of his arrest before Saturday.
The elder, Sukhwinder Singh Rangi, attributed the repeated conflicts to a dispute over USD 800,000 contributed by members of the congregation, which was to be reimbursed to a corporate entity set up to buy the temple from foreclosure in July 2020. Was.
“It’s probably the greed that got them,” Bakersfield.com quoted Rangi as saying.
Rangi said that Gil, an informant of the temple, offered two Hispanic men US$10,000 to kill some leaders of the congregation who are involved in court cases, including Rangi. They said that Gill drove men around the city, pointing out the houses of the temple chiefs whom he wanted to kill. This information was received by the temple leadership from an associate of the wanted hitman.
With over 500 members, the Martyrdom is one of the best Sikh temples in Bakersfield. It hosts an annual festival in late October that attracts thousands of people.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)