Court orders injunction in Sikh temple dispute

A Stanislaus Superior Court judge has issued a tentative preliminary injunction against a group of men who took over leadership of the Sikh temple in Hughson in September.

Once the order is made official by the court, the group must relinquish control of the temple’s finances and property.

Judge Timothy W. Salter on Friday ordered the defendants, as well as “all persons acting in concert or participating with them,” to “refrain from taking, possessing or controlling any property or funds of the temple,” according to court documents.

The temple, Gurdwara Sahib on East Hatch Road, in mid-October requested an injunction against 11 men and several of their affiliates who, the plaintiffs say, forcefully took control of the temple’s cash box, changed locks and appointed themselves the temple’s interim executive committee on Sept.7.

The temple has been in a state of unrest ever since. Members from both sides have hired security guards to stand watch during worship on Sundays, and several fights have erupted between the two factions.

The defendants argue that the 11-member elected executive committee had mismanaged the temple’s finances and refused to provide any accounting of expenditures.

Elections for the committee are on hold until a lawsuit and countersuit between the temple and one of its members concerning the bylaws of committee elections is resolved.

“The court has ordered a preliminary injunction, which is in the process of being issued,” said Modesto attorney Michael Ijams. “This does not affect the other litigation concerning the bylaws. The parties are continuing their efforts to resolve the bylaw issues by agreement.”

Ijams, of law firm Berliner Cohen’s Modesto office, has been representing the temple on behalf of the elected committee members since the first lawsuit was filed about two years ago.

The defendants’ attorney, Ginny Bedi of Bedi and Johnson Attorneys at Law in San Jose, said she’d have to speak with her clients before commenting about the case to The Bee, but she did not call back Tuesday.

Salter ordered that the temple’s property and funds be surrendered to the temple’s five-member Advisory Committee, which is separate from the elected executive committee and the takeover committee.

Salter also ordered that the defendants “refrain from threatening, harassing or intimidating any person on temple ground.”

In addition, he ordered “that they shall refrain from bringing weapons of any kind into the temple other than the small kirpan or dagger recognized by the Sikh faith and to specifically refrain from bringing large kirpans that resemble swords.”

Women last month went to the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s local chapter with claims that the defendants had threatened and intimidated them when the women went to temple to worship or spoke out against the takeover committee.

The women said the intimidation was compounded by the fact that the defendants were carrying large swords.

During one incident Oct.1, two of the defendants in the civil case, Natha Singh and Boota Basi, were arrested and cited, respectively, by Stanislaus county sheriff’s deputies. Singh was arrested on suspicion of battery, and Basi was cited and released on suspicion of assault.

Neither man has been charged criminally by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, but Salter made another order concerning Basi, which stemmed from that incident. “I’m going to order that the defendant be enjoined and restrained in engaging in … threatening, harassing or intimidating any person on temple grounds.”

The victims of the suspected battery and assault, husband and wife Nirmal and Meetinder Rai, are seeking separate civil restraining orders against the accused, as well as Dupinder Bajwa; all three are defendants named in the injunction.

The case will be heard Wednesday in Department 23 of Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published November 11, 2014 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Court orders injunction in Sikh temple dispute."