By Daniel Massey
A homeless Hindu man angry over his eviction from the Richmond Hill Sikh temple where he was living returned last week and allegedly set fire to the house of worship, police and temple officials said.
Firefighters alerted by a 911 call from a neighbor who had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom quickly arrived on the scene and doused the flames that rose from a side doorway of the Gurudwara Baba Makhan Shah Lobana, a Sikh temple at 113-10 101st Ave., shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 6.
Although eyewitnesses said the flames fanned by gasoline reached about 20 feet in the air to a white dome above the 114th Street doorway, there were no injuries and damage to the temple was limited to a charred door.
After an eyewitness told police he saw a man behaving strangely in front of the burning entryway, Khagesh Kumar, 46, was arrested around 4 a.m. and charged with arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, police said.
He pleaded not guilty at an Aug. 6 arraignment before Queens Criminal Court Judge Leonora Gerald and was being held on $7,500 bail, said a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Another court date was set for Aug. 20.
Kumar had been living in the Gurudwara Baba Makhan Shah Lobana since he had been kicked out of the Sikh Cultural Society, a temple on 118th Street, shortly before it was completely destroyed in a March 8 fire, officials from both temples said.
“He was here for like six months. We told him you cannot live here that long,” said Raghbir Singh, president of the Gurudwara Baba Makhan Shah Lobana. “In our religion we give food and help no matter where you come from, but when they start living here too long, we have to tell them.”
The two Sikh temples in Richmond Hill typically provide temporary shelter and a sense of community for immigrants and visitors from India while they establish roots in New York.
Despite the strange similarities in circumstances preceding the two fires, law enforcement sources and Sikh Cultural Society officials say it is unlikely Kumar had any connection to the blaze that gutted the 118th Street temple. Fire officials and insurance investigators have already ruled out foul play in that fire.
Singh described Kumar as a mysterious man who spent days in the public library on Lefferts Boulevard sending out e-mails. He said he did not know where he was originally from, but he arrived at the temple six months ago saying he had no place to live.
Police arrested Kumar after an 11-year-old boy who lives across the street from the temple told them he saw a man in brown pajamas jumping up and down in front of the fire and acting strangely before leaving the scene.
His father had awakened him after he observed the flames while making a late night trip to the bathroom.
Reach reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
