India’s prime minister offered his condolences after well-known spiritual leader Baba Hardev Singh, 62, died when the car he was travelling in on Thursday overturned on Highway 30 in Beauharnois, just west of Montreal.
Hardev Singh was the chief priest of the Sant Nirankari Mission, which has 2,000 centres around the world, including one in Pointe-Claire.
Hardev Singh was in a black Cadillac SUV travelling on westbound Highway 30 at Kilometre 22. He was on a tour, visiting several centres, and was scheduled to visit the Pointe-Claire establishment.
The Sûreté du Québec arrived at the crash scene around 7:30 p.m. It appears the vehicle, travelling in the left lane, suddenly shifted to the right for an unknown reason, hit the ditch and overturned. There were four people in the car.
“The driver and the front passenger were not seriously hurt, but the two people in the back were ejected,” Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Ingrid Asselin said.
She said the other backseat passenger, a 28-year-old man, also from India, was in serious condition in a hospital on Friday.
The Nirankari mission began as a reform movement within Sikhism.
The Sant Nirankari Movement or Universal Brotherhood Movement, which was started by Baba Buta Singh in 1920s, believes in the importance of a living leader. Sikhism, on the other hand, believed in the Sikh scriptures as their final guru. It was this difference that caused the Sant Nirankari movement, which separated from mainstream Sikhism in 1929.
Satguru Gurbachan Singh was assassinated by fundamentalist Sikhs belonging to Akhand Kirtani Jatha who were wary of the growing power of the Nirankari Mission. After the assassination, Baba Hardev Singh succeeded his father as the Satguru of the mission and continued to provide teachings to the believers.
The mission said in a statement: “With profound pain and sorrow, this is to inform you that His Holiness Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj has merged into this Almighty God.” Followers were encouraged not to rush to Delhi or the mission’s headquarters.
Asselin said police suspect the men in the back were not wearing seatbelts. The vehicle will undergo a mechanical inspection to determine whether it had any defects.
Asselin said it is not known why the vehicle turned over, but said alcohol was not suspected to be the cause.
