A former Bakersfield City Council candidate, Rajvir “Raj” Singh Gill, 60, was arrested last weekend on suspicion of trying to hire hit men to shoot members of one of Bakersfield’s largest Sikh temples, Gurudawara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji Khalsa Darbar, and burn down the property, US-based bakersfield.com reported.
The Sikh leader, Gill who was under a temporary restraining order not to harass the temple, was taken into custody on Saturday after being accused of six counts of solicitation to commit a criminal act but records show that Gill has since been released from jail.
Gill had won less than 7 per cent of the vote in November’s Ward 7 election. According to a temple elder, Sukhwinder Singh Ranghi, Gill has in recent months shown up at the property, disrupting prayers and threatening members of the congregation and carrying a gun before being arrested at one point.
According to Ranghi, the repeated confrontations were due to a dispute over more than USD 800,000, contributed by members of the congregation, that was supposed to reimburse a corporate entity set up to buy the temple out of foreclosure in July 2020, bakersfield.com reported.
“It’s the greed that most likely got to him,” Ranghi said through a translator.
He further added that, Gill offered USD 10,000 to two Hispanic men to kill certain leaders of the congregation who are involved in the court cases, including Ranghi, Gill drove the men around the city pointing out the homes of the temple leaders he wanted to be killed.