50-year-old goes missing from Tajpur church

Less than a month after a cancer patient’s death during a healing session on its premises, the Church of Glory and Wisdom at Tajpur has courted controversy yet again after a 50-year-old man went missing from there on Sunday.

The family of Munna Lal, a resident of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, has filed a missing person report at the Lambra police station in Jalandhar. Munna reportedly went to relieve himself in a bathroom at the church and had been missing since then. He along with his son-in-law Ashish had gone to attend a healing meeting at the church, where Pastor Baljinder Singh conducts ministeries.

The Tajpur police station SHO said: “A missing person report has been filed by the family with us. We have also started putting up posters of the man to search for him.”

I have been visiting the church for the past one year. I brought my father-in-law for the first time, in hope he would heal, as he was mentally disturbed. We came here on Saturday and stayed overnight at the church. On Sunday, my father-in-law went missing during the prayer meeting. On Monday, when I came to the church again to enquire about him, the authorities snatched my phone and abused me. It is after this that we lodged a complaint at the Lambra police station. We would want an FIR to be lodged in the case.”

Ashish along with Munna’s sons Shishupal and Shivam, is currently in Jalandhar looking for him.

Investigating Officer Baljinder Singh, an ASI, said: “We went to the church today, but the CCTV footage was not made available to us. The church authorities have asked us to come again tomorrow. Detailed investigations are on in the case and the police are searching for the man.”

The Jalandhar rural police have released a missing person advertisement to be circulated across Punjab.

Avtar Singh, chief, Prophet Baljinder Singh Ministries, said, “If the man was mentally disturbed, his attendants should have accompanied him to the bathroom.”

Denying charges of misbehaviour with the family, he said, “Nobody misbehaved with the family. These are false charges. As far as finding the senior citizen is concerned, we will extend all cooperation to the police. Today, the youth managing CCTV operations at the church was not here, thus we asked the police to come tomorrow. All the footage will be shared with cops.”