HC stays arrest of Lotus temple trustees

The Delhi High Court today stayed the arrest of the trustees and management committee members of Delhi's Lotus temple, till September 25 on a complaint registered with the Delhi Police.

Justice A K Sikri directed the Economic Offence Wing(EOW) of the Delhi Police not to arrest the trustees and management committee members of the Lotus temple, founded by the Bahai faith, till the next date of hearing.

Trial Judge Kamini Lau, on the complaint of some of the former employees of the temple, had directed the Delhi Police to lodge a complaint against the trustees and management committee members who were allegedly involved in smuggling of classified defence documents, hawala transactions and religious conversions.

The trustees and members, some of them from Iran, also procured about 80 Indian passports by submitting false address proof, Counsel S S Tripathy and Sandeep Jain said.

Incidentally, Zina Sorabjee, the wife of former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee, is one of the trustees of the Lotus Temple, a tourist attraction in the capital.

Senior Counsel K K Sud appearing for the Bahai temple sought direction of the Court for quashing the FIR.

After lodging an FIR, the Delhi Police arrested Iranian Payam Shoghi from Indira Gandhi International Airport while fleeing from the country to Columbia on August 16.

The police had lodged the complaint against nine beneficiaries which included trustees and members of the managing committee.

UNI PAT AK ND1938

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