Coventry cult leader Rajinder Kalia accused of raping devotees claiming to be ‘incarnation of God’
A cult leader accused of raping devotees boasted on YouTube he could make fire from water and charged £12,000 to perform healing miracles, court papers claim.
Rajinder Kalia, 65, allegedly brainwashed followers into believing he was “God on Earth” at the Baba Balak Nath temple in Coventry.
The documents are part of a civil case which has been filed in the High Court in which the self-styled guru is accused of grooming and raping four women.
The files also claim he ordered them to bow to his “slightest utterance” or suffer “eternal damnation”.
Online videos and pictures show followers kissing Kalia’s feet as he sat on a “throne”, showering him with confetti and garlands.
His alleged victims, all devotees, said they were subjected to “degrading” and “violent” sex acts.
One claims she had been groomed by him as a toddler and another alleges that she was forced to undergo an abortion.
Kalia denies the allegations.
The papers, seen by the Sunday Mirror, claim Kalia purported to have “a direct link to God” and charged a “going rate” of £12,000 for miracles “per person, per condition”.
The lawsuit states: “[They] include the alleged power of healing, the alleged healing of life threatening diseases and physically impossible claims to have ignited water.”
It added that the latter claim “was, until early 2020, available to view on YouTube”.
The Baba Balak Nath temple, set up in 1986, had a website in which Kalia was said to have been portrayed as a miracle worker.
His teachings and commands “were to be obeyed without question”, ex-worshippers claim.
The court papers state: “To question his authority or otherwise express doubt in any way as to his teachings and orders was to be an unworthy disciple.”
That would “place the individual in dire peril of eternal damnation through a cycle of birth and rebirth for ever more”.
Followers were told people outside the temple were “evil and to be avoided” and they were encouraged to shut off communication with family and friends.
The papers also claim his Midlands temple pulls in “an average of 250 persons on weekdays, 500 on Sundays and can be up to 1,000 for special religious festivals”.
It’s said to make up to “tens of thousands” in a single weekend through donations from devotees.
The documents also allege that worshippers were made to carry out unpaid building work at the temple without any proper safety equipment.
Kalia, a former draper from India, is accused of rape on the basis that his alleged victims could not consent because their “free will was overborne by the undue influence that he had over each of them”.
The woman who claims she was forced to undergo an abortion said she held Kalia “in the utmost esteem, having been encouraged by him to believe that he was an incarnation of God”.
Kalia lives in a gated mansion in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warks, and takes devotees on a pilgrimage to another temple he runs in India every year.
Police dismissed rape allegations against him in 2017 because of insufficient evidence. Kalia allegedly told devotees to “harass” those who spoke out against him.
The Hindu Council this week suspended the Baba Balak Nath temple in Coventry as an affiliate with “immediate effect”. The victims seeking damages from Kalia are no longer members of the temple.
The papers were served at the High Court last month.
