Temple boss charged after fake passport scam exposed

Former manager pleads guilty after priest’s confession over dodgy paperwork. Steve reports.

Aformer Sikh temple manager has pleaded guilty to providing false and misleading information after a Stuff story last year revealed how the temple had recruited a priest using a fake passport.

The temple manager, Rajvinder Singh, will be sentenced in October, when his lawyer, Lester Cordwell, has indicated he will seek a discharge without conviction.

It’s understood the charges relate to paperwork he supplied to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) related to visa applications.

Rajvinder handled those applications on behalf of the Nanaksar gurdwara, a wellknown landmark on Great South Rd in Manurewa, Auckland.

Among those he brought to New Zealand was a priest named Tarsem Singh, who was refused a visa in his own name. He then reapplied and was allowed into the country with a fake passport under the name Simranjit Singh, which listed temple founder Baba Amar Singh as his father. He remains in New Zealand despite INZ knowing of his circumstances. Tarsem is pursuing an Employment Relations Authority claim alleging the temple exploited him.

Cordwell has opposed a Stuff application to view the court file. He says Rajvinder already faces a ‘‘loss of mana within the small Sikh community’’. He suggested media coverage would ‘‘exert a negative influence through the framing of the defendant’s story ... without the offending’s context’’.

Rajvinder Singh refused to comment when contacted.

Stuff first revealed in 2021 that the trust had organised a visa application for Tarsem to return to New Zealand in 2012, but it was declined. It was then, he alleged, that they organised him a new passport with a new date of birth,

a new name – Simranjit Singh – and even new parents’ names. The name listed for his father was that of trust founder Baba Amar

Singh.

His visa was approved in February 2013 and he arrived in New Zealand on April 1. He says Rajvinder and Amar Singh both ‘‘knew very well I was the same person they knew before, as they had tried to get a visa for me under my real name’’.

Tarsem showed Stuff emails sent to him by Rajvinder, including one from September 2012, referring to the visa application in the name Tarsem Singh; others related to

applications for Simranjit Singh, including one in which Rajvinder tells INZ that the trust ‘‘had a very clear record with Immigration NZ for a long time now’’. Rajvinder completed both applications, and all Tarsem’s visa applications since 2012 have been sponsored by the trust.

When asked in 2021 about the emails in his name, Rajvinder Singh said: ‘‘Where did the passport get made? And where was I at that time?

‘‘Can you please not report something you are not sure about. I don’t need to answer your questions, thank you … you are going to believe in what you are

‘They knew he was multi-talented therefore they used him without paying any wages, without holidays and holiday pay.’ MANJINDER SINGH

seeing, so I don’t care.’’

Cordwell told Stuff at the time that INZ had told him they had insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution.

Other migrants then stepped forward with claims that the temple had also abused the visa process in their cases.

The trust has previously denied any knowledge of the visa issues.

In a statement, INZ’s general manager of verification and compliance, Richard Owen, confirmed Singh’s charge and plea but said INZ couldn’t comment while the case was before the courts. Owen confirmed nobody else had been charged in relation to the offending, including Tarsem Singh. He did not respond to questions about whether INZ planned any deportation action against Tarsem.

Friends of Tarsem say they hope INZ will show compassion and allow him to remain on a legitimate visa.

Meanwhile, Tarsem is continuing with an ERA action against the temple, alleging that they compelled him to work as an unpaid handyman, an allegation the trust had always denied. The temple has declined to go to mediation and an investigation meeting will be held on November 15 in Auckland. They have previously described the claim as ‘‘frivolous’’ and ‘‘preposterous’’.

Tarsem’s advocate, May Moncur, has tabled 12 witness statements from temple-goers attesting to seeing Tarsem Singh at work at the temple.

One witness, tiler Manjinder Singh, writes: ‘‘I believe that he was used by the temple as a free labour. I think that the way the temple management of bringing him here to NZ on false identity is pre-planned as by doing so they could control him and make him continue working as a free labourer to their advantage.

‘‘I think the temple management exploited him by using him for free labour whenever they needed.

‘‘They knew he was multitalented therefore they used him without paying any wages, without holidays and holiday pay.’’