Self-styled Hindu ‘god on earth’ accused of raping and abusing ex-disciples defeats £8m lawsuit as choose guidelines proof towards him is ‘not sufficiently credible’

A Hindu religious leader accused of proclaiming himself ‘god-on-earth’ while abusing and raping his followers has defeated a £8million lawsuit against him.

Four women accused Rajinder Kalia, saying he ‘groomed’ members of his temple to believe he is ‘an incarnation of God,’ while preying on women and underage girls.

Mr Kalia – head priest at his Hindu-based temple in Coventry – was accused of wooing worshippers by claiming he could perform ‘miracles,’ including setting fire to water and squeezing blood from a lemon.

He was sued by four former temple members, who claimed he took advantage of his position to subject them to sexual abuse, three of them while still children.

The leader denied any wrongdoing and, following a month-long trial at the High Court in June and July, today won his case with a judge rejecting every one of their claims.

Mr Kalia, 68, also denied he had ever claimed to have divine powers, such as the ability to cure people or animals of cancer , and said he is the victim of a ‘conspiracy’ to ‘extort’ millions from him.

‘The claimants have fabricated stories, and have lied, in order to extort money from me,’ he previously told the judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer.

The judge said today that the women’s evidence was ‘not sufficiently credible’ to find that they had been abused by Mr Kalia.

One woman had constantly referred to him as a ‘devil’ in order to portray him in the worst possible way, while another had actually had a consensual relationship with him, the judge found.

Claiming millions in compensation, all four women claimed sexual abuse, three of them stating that their ordeals at his hands began when they were children.

Mr Kalia’s barrister Sarah Crowther KC said: ‘Each of the claimants allege serious sexual assaults took place on a regular basis over many years in the ‘priest’s room’ at the temple.

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

‘It seems particularly strange that there was no contemporary complaint or other corroborative evidence when the temple was busy, with up to 200 people in the building.’

Giving evidence, one of the four women said she had been controlled by Mr Kalia from being a child, even when she was outside the UK.

‘I was told by the devil, Kalia, that I was not to have any relationship,’ she told the judge.

‘When I went to India, I could feel him watching my every move. I was paranoid, I was scared.’

Speaking of members of the temple giving evidence in his defence, she said: ‘They’re puppets on his string, but my string has been cut.

‘They will do anything he says, but he isn’t God. He isn’t an incarnation of God, he is the devil. I was groomed by him to believe he was God, because I was a child when I went to him.’  

As part of their claim, the women’s lawyers put forward videos they said showed Mr Kalia purporting to perform on-stage ‘miracles’ which made followers believe in his divinity.

They included him squeezing blood from a lemon and a chapati, and seemingly setting fire to water.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said Mr Kalia had described his stage actions as being a form of ‘entertainment’ and had therefore admitted they were ‘tricks.’

‘It is a dangerous game, in my view, when a person of religion, a person who leads a congregation of many hundreds of people…mixes his preaching, his teachings about the deity, with cheap tricks,’ he said.

‘There is at least a risk that less sophisticated members of the congregation – or, indeed, children – will truly believe that these are miracles, that the priest has a direct line to the deity who is conferring on him the power to perform miracles, or at least be the medium through which miracles are performed by the deity and that the priest is therefore someone special, holy, who is in direct communication with the deity and therefore someone who is to be revered and obeyed.

‘This links to the evidence of the claimants that they felt they had no choice but to obey the defendant because of the exalted position in which he was regarded.’

But he went on to find that the four women had not proved that he had sexually assaulted or abused them at all, with one having actually had a consensual relationship with him.

The woman had joined the temple as an adult with experience of men and ‘would have understood that she had a choice whether or not to consent to sexual intercourse,’ he said.

‘I find that, when [she] met the defendant at hotels, as she described, she went voluntarily and knowing that the purpose was for them to have sexual intercourse.

‘She was not an automaton and retained her free will and ability to choose.’

Another of the women had given her evidence ‘from a standpoint whereby she said whatever she thought best suited her case, rather than from a standpoint of telling the truth and assisting the court.’

‘For the above reasons, I reject [her] evidence and find that she was not sexually assaulted by the defendant as a child, nor that she was raped and sexually assaulted by the defendant in her adulthood,’ he said.

Yet another of the complainants’ ‘use of language, referring to the defendant throughout as ‘the devil’ for example, throughout her evidence to show the defendant in the worst possible light was more consistent with a witness who was determined that her case should be accepted than one who had come to tell the truth,’ he continued.

Dismissing all of their cases in their entirety, he added: ‘I have found that their evidence was not sufficiently credible for me to conclude that they have proved their claims to the required evidential standard.

‘I have found on the evidence that they were not sexually assaulted by the defendant as children, nor were they raped or sexually assaulted in adulthood.’

Their cases, as well as other temple members who had alleged financial abuse, were all dismissed.

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

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

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

Following a motorbike accident, he had been told he would never walk again, but found himself back on his feet after a visit to Himachal Pradesh, centre of worship of Baba Balak Nath.

He set up his temple in Coventry after moving to the UK.

Rajinder Kalia said in a statement: ‘In dismissing the claimants’ claims in their entirety, the court has shown that this was a coordinated attempt to destroy my reputation and seek financial gain. As I recognised from the outset, and as became increasingly evident during proceedings, the claimants repeatedly offered fictitious and fabricated testimonies and showed a lack of respect for court rules and protocol.

‘The claimants’ allegations have now been subjected to proper scrutiny by the police, CPS and by the High Court, and have been wholly rejected on each occasion.

‘I am saddened that these claims involved former attendees at the Temple. However, I hope they will find peace and redemption. I pray to Lord Bawa Balak Nath Ji that anyone else facing similarly false allegations has the strength, resilience and patience to challenge them – it is an enormous burden to endure but no one should wilt in the face of an opportunity to counter mendacious claims.

‘I remain grateful, as ever, to Lord Bawa Balak Nath Ji and the members of the Mandir Sangat for standing by me throughout this exhausting, costly and arduous trial. On that note, I thank my legal team led by Sarah Crowther KC of Outer Temple Chambers as well as Kingsley Napley, notably Francesca Parker, for the judicious work, advice and industry throughout this matter.

‘While I am greatly relieved it is over and will personally reflect on the findings, I need to consider the next steps which will enable my family and I, indeed the whole Mandir community, to finally put this challenging episode behind us.’