68-year-old religious leader accused of calling himself ‘God’ to exploit and sexually abuse his followers is a ‘devil’, claims former disciple amid £8m High Court legal battle

A religious leader accused of calling himself a living “god” to exploit and sexually abuse his followers is a “devil” in disguise, a former disciple has claimed in a High Court legal battle worth £8 million.

Rajinder Kalia is said to have tricked members of his temple into believing he was an “incarnation of God” while sexually abusing women and underage girls.

Mr Kalia, head priest of his Hindu temple in Coventry, is said to have wooed believers with claims that he could perform “miracles”, including lighting water on fire and squeezing blood from a lemon.

The married 68-year-old denies the allegations against him, insists that it is a financially motivated conspiracy and denies being a “false guru”.

But one of his accusers told High Court judge Justice Martin Spencer this week that she thought he was a “devil” after what he had done to her.

The woman, whose name cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, described his followers as “puppets” and said: “He is not an incarnation of God, he is the devil.”

The London court heard that Mr Kalia is chairman of the Sidh Baba Balak Nath Ji Society of Coventry, a religious organisation that adheres to the founding principles of the Hindu religion.

The sect is based on the worship of Baba Balak Nath, a Hindu god whose main temple is located in a cave in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh and who manifests himself as an eternally young blue-skinned boy riding a peacock.

The court heard that Mr Kalia, who began preaching in 1983 after moving to the UK from India, claimed to have experienced a miracle as a teenager that brought him closer to the divine.

After a motorcycle accident, he was told he would never walk again, but after a visit to Himachal Pradesh, the center of worship of Baba Balak Nath, he was back on his feet.

“He believes this was a miracle and that his faith, particularly in the deity Baba Balak Nath, has been strengthened,” said his lawyer Sarah Crowther KC.

But now four women are suing Mr Kalia, alleging that he sexually abused them. They and three other former supporters also accuse him of financial exploitation.

The former disciples want millions in compensation.

They claim that Mr. Kalia portrayed himself as an incarnation of God and/or the Divine by performing “alleged miracles,” including claims that he had healing powers.

He claimed to be infallible and that his “utterances must be obeyed without question.” To question his authority was unworthy and would put them “in great danger of eternal damnation through a cycle of birth and rebirth.”

The sexual abuse of three of the women began when they were minors, it is said, while he allegedly raped some of his followers when they were young adults.

One of the four women stated in her witness statement that Mr Kalia had controlled her since she was a child, even when she was outside the United Kingdom.

“The devil told me, Kalia, I was not allowed to have a relationship,” the crying prosecutor told the judge from the witness stand.

“When I went to India, I felt him watching my every move. I was paranoid, I was afraid.”

Of the Temple members who testified on his behalf, she said, “They are puppets on his strings, but my string is cut.”

“They will do whatever he says, but he is not God. He is not an incarnation of God, he is the devil.”

“He raised me to believe he was God because I was a child when I went to him.”

Mr Kalia’s lawyers deny the allegations and say his accusers waited far too long after the alleged events to come forward with their claims.

But the former student told the judge that she packed her memories of the abuse as a child in a “box wrapped in a bow” and “threw it into the sea” before the box was opened with her report to the police in 2017.

“Now the lid won’t close and I don’t know how to close it without justice,” she said.

Another alleged abuse victim told the judge that he saw Mr. Kalia perform “miracles” by rubbing his hands together to create a red powder with which he anointed members of the temple.

Attorney Mark Jones said the plaintiffs claimed they were “completely subjected to the defendant’s charismatic and forceful personality.”

This meant that their ability to voluntarily agree to his demands for financial and, in the case of four of the women, sexual benefits had been overridden, he said.

“Each of the plaintiffs alleges that he was subject to the psychological domination of the defendant, was subservient to him as his religious leader, and had become accustomed to obeying without question his orders and the mores of society that arose from his teachings,” he said.

“In addition, plaintiffs one through four allege that in some cases they were subjected to persistent physical sexual abuse by the defendant in circumstances where his influence over them impaired their ability to give voluntary consent, and in the case of plaintiffs two through four, this began during their minority when they were incapable of giving consent.”

According to Mr Jones, one woman claims to have been sexually abused more than 1,320 times over two decades. Another woman claims she was sexually abused as a child and failed exams as a result before being deprived of her virginity at the age of 21.

A third said she was deflowered in a rape in a Birmingham hotel, and the fourth claimed she was inappropriately hugged and kissed as early as the age of four before her virginity was taken as a young adult.

Three other plaintiffs claim they were victims of financial abuse, which caused them to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds during their membership of the community.

In Mr Kalia’s case, however, Ms Crowther denied any wrongdoing and suggested that the plaintiffs had conspired to obtain money from him in a “fundamentally dishonest” attempt.

“The plaintiffs, like all temple attendees, have always led their own lives in the wider community and have voluntarily chosen to attend the temple and participate in the activities of its faith community,” she said.

“They participated voluntarily, for their own spiritual and personal benefit. They were free to come and go as they pleased.

“The allegations, including those of assault, are untrue, fundamentally dishonest and the result of a conspiracy by the plaintiffs to extort the defendant.”

“He did not harass the plaintiffs, but they harassed other members of the community and attempted to spread falsehoods about the defendant and recruit others into their conspiracy in exchange for the promise of financial reward.”

She added: “The defendant did not preach that he was divine, nor that he had special powers such as the ability to perform miracles, nor did he claim to have power over the lives of the plaintiffs.”

She argued that the women’s complaints were received simultaneously, many years after the alleged incidents, and that there were “significant discrepancies” between their cases in court and their complaints to the police.

“Each of the plaintiffs alleges that serious sexual assaults occurred regularly in the temple’s ‘priest’s room’ over many years,” she continued.

“The evidence shows that this ‘room’ was actually part of a large, open space that had no door and over which there were several vantage points, including a balcony above.”

“What seems particularly strange is that there were no contemporary complaints or other corroborating evidence when the temple was very busy and there were up to 200 people in the building.”

She added: “It seems likely that the content of the false allegations was inspired by a mixture of past experiences of some members of the group and previous allegations of sexual misconduct unrelated to the accused, as well as media and/or internet reports about ‘fake gurus.'”

But Mr Jones said the claim for compensation – the amount of which has not yet been finally calculated but is estimated to be in the millions – only arose after the CPS refused to prosecute Mr Kalia.

“The defendant’s theory of the case, which is a completely reprehensible conspiracy to extort money on the basis of false accusations, fails to adequately – or even at all – take into account this glaring fact: prior to the reports to the police … in December 2016 and January 2017, no demand for payment of any amount was made by him,” he told the judge.

“This is therefore not a case in which the plaintiffs actually sought to blackmail the defendant by threatening to report him to the police or other authorities if he did not pay them money and at the same time threatening to report him to the courts on falsely fabricated charges.

“Your civil claim was only brought after the CPS had refused to prosecute the defendant and all subsequent applications for review of the prosecution decision had failed.”

The trial, which is expected to last more than three weeks, will continue.