Income tax raids at 12 premises of Jalandhar pastor

Jalandhar, April 25

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Having already conducted raids on the premises of two pastors Bajinder Singh and Harpreet Deol nearly two months back, income tax teams zeroed in on the biggest Pentecostal church of Punjab run by Pastor Ankur Narula.

The Church of Signs and Wonder, which he runs falls at Khambra village along Nakodar road. The I-T teams simultaneously started raids at 12 premises connected with Narula and his businesses. The sites where raids were conducted include the church, his residence, his in-law’s place at Phillaur and his two associates allegedly linked with property businesses in Kapurthala and Panchkula.

There are reports that he was running various centres in Jalandhar, including a centre for training in civil services, IELTS, immigration, a mall and a nursing institute, where the raids were conducted. The pastor was also known to be getting foreign funding and donations, which too is being tracked by the I-T teams.

Even as the entire raid is being supervised from Jalandhar, the officials who have been a part of the raiding teams include those from Faridabad, Panipat, Noida and Ludhiana. Paramilitary forces have been deployed along the boundaries of all the sites and entry and exit of any person from these centres was manned by them throughout the day today.

Pastor Ankur Narula hails from a Hindu Khatri family and had few years back changed his name as Ankur Yoseph Narula when he began following Christianity. His wife Sonia Yoseph Narula too delivers sermons with him. Narula has shared it in public several times that he was a drug addict but it was Jesus who himself rescued him and changed his life for the better.