Missing funds behind ambush of 2 Sikh Indians?

Unexplained missing church funds amounting to several millions is behind the ambush of two Indian nationals Sunday night in Caloocan City, a spokesperson for the Indian Sikh Temple community told The STAR.

This developed as four of some 15 suspects in the ambush of Bhagwant Rai Banzal, 40, president of the Khalsa Diwan Indian Sikh Temple, a resident of 6th Avenue, Caloocan City, and his cousin Rajesh Kumar, 48, of Valenzuela City, were criminally charged for murder and frustrated murder before the Caloocan City Prosecutors Office the other day.

Kumar died at the ambush site due to multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body while Banzal survived the onslaught and is now recovering in an undisclosed hospital.

Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton, Station Investigation and Detection Management Bureau (SIDBM) chief, identified the suspects as Amardeep, former president of Khalsa Diwan Indian Sikh Temple and his brother Gurpreet, both of Sampaloc, Manila; Pritam of Singalong, Manila and Karnaez alias "Rajah" of Barangay Poblacion, Makati City, all surnamed Singh.

City Prosecutor Ferdinand Valbuena saw probable cause and recommended no bail on the murder charge and a bail of P200,000 for each of the suspects on the frustrated murder charge.

SPO1 Ferdinand Sarmiento and PO1 Felipe Woo, officers-on-case, told The STAR the police are hard on the heels of at least 11 more suspects.

In an exclusive interview, James "Jimmy" Kumar, 27, the victims’ nephew and spokesperson for the Indian temple community, said Banzal, his mother’s brother and Kumar, Banzal’s first cousin and also his uncle, were killed over missing church funds amounting to several millions that could not be accounted for by Amardeep, the former temple president.

James said Amardeep had been president of their church for nine years before Banzal took over two years ago. He pointed to Amardeep and his cohorts as directly responsible for the ambush.

He said Banzal whispered the suspects’ names to him as he sat at his uncle’s bedside in the hospital a few hours after the attack.

"They worked like a syndicate. For more than 10 months now, we have been asking them where the money went, but they could not tell us anything. We have put the incidents on record variously in the police blotters, including those of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and the Special Weapons and Tactics in some cities of Metro Manila," James said, adding he had been a victim of two previous attempts on his life allegedly perpetrated by the suspects’ group.

James told The STAR he was marked for liquidation by Amardeep’s group because he is aspiring for the temple’s presidency and is being groomed by Banzal to replace him when the latter’s term expires next year. Quoting a memorandum of agreement, James said the president’s term was changed from the previous one year to the present three years.

James said the first attempt on his life occurred at 2:10 a.m. of Aug. 27 last year at The Fort in Makati. The second, he said happened in March 13 this year at 11:30 a.m. outside his house in Makati, this while showing the several scars on his body where his would-be assassins’ bullets hit him.

He said the group had earlier threatened him.

"Tigilan nyo na ang simbahan," James quoted the suspects as saying, telling him he was next. – Jerry Botial