Dissident Sikhs Win Delay in Temple Eviction : North Hollywood: Group is allowed time to complete a prayer service. Police say they must leave by noon today.

A dissident group that allegedly took over a Sikh temple in North Hollywood by violence won a 24-hour reprieve from eviction Wednesday when they begged for time to complete a lengthy prayer service, but police warned the group they must quit the temple by noon today or face arrest.

Three officers turned up at the temple in the 7600 block of Lankershim Boulevard to observe the serving of a court order obtained by the temple’s board of directors against the dissidents, who the directors accused of beating and injuring other Sikhs before occupying the building Oct. 10. Carrying the court order, members of the board gathered nearby, ready to reclaim the building.

“We have ceremonies going on,” Surinder Singh Sidhu, a former board vice president pleaded from inside the doorway. He tearfully predicted dire results if the prayers were interrupted.

“I live in America and I’m not allowed to pray,” he sobbed, collapsing on the doorstep.

The officers from the North Hollywood Division stood watch as the feuding Sikhs negotiated a compromise so the 48-hour reading of the Sikh holy book, the Gurugranth Sahib, could continue uninterrupted. The confrontation was defused when the board agreed to the delay.

Dissident Sikhs said the prayer ceremony was intended as an apology to God for all the recent turmoil at the temple, which allegedly has escalated to include death threats, assaults and an incident during which a priest was held at gunpoint.

But, Police Sgt. Barney McCrea warned, when the prayers end at noon today, the directors can enter and the dissidents must leave, under terms of the order by Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien.

If they don’t, and the directors want them arrested, McCrea said, “the police will arrest them. If there’s a problem, we’ll come out and do what we have to do.”

The dispute mirrors the bitter controversy that divides Sikhs in their homeland and abroad and has fed years of violence in India: a decade-old struggle to make the Indian state of Punjab an independent Sikh state.

Sikhs belong to a 500-year-old sect that blends the influences of Hinduism and Islam. And, other disputes also have arisen in the American Sikh community over the influence of Western culture over traditional Sikh customs.

The board members say the dissidents are using violence and intimidation to mount a hostile takeover of their corporation, which runs the temple. The dissidents say affluent board members are trying to impose their will on the entire congregation.

According to a lawsuit filed by the directors, the current legal action is just the latest in a series of court battles. The feuding Sikhs have been involved in eight previous court fights--including a protracted lawsuit five years ago over a temple in Buena Park. Some of the same players are involved now, said attorney Kevin O’Connell, who filed the suit Tuesday on the directors’ behalf.

Both sides return to court Nov. 5 for further hearings.

The suit accuses members of a group called Sikh Youth of America of mounting a hostile and violent takeover of the North Hollywood temple. The name is misleading, because members of the “youth” group range in age up to 45, O’Connell said.

The temporary order bars some defendants named in the lawsuit from molesting, attacking, striking, threatening, assaulting or battering the directors or other temple members. It also prohibits some of them from contacting the directors and members by telephone or from annoying, harassing or assaulting them.

In addition, the defendants named in the restraining order were ordered to stay 100 yards from the directors and other members and 100 yards from the temple. They were also restrained from advocating the commission of any act of violence at future temple meetings.

The lawsuit accuses the dissidents of using “terrorist and intimidation tactics to unlawfully and improperly take control of the nonprofit corporation and its religious functions.”

The Gurdwara board alleges that four members of the dissident group, under the leadership of Lakhbir S. Chima, took the temple priest hostage at gunpoint last March 22 and destroyed the temple’s security equipment. And the court documents allege that group members beat several of the board members Oct. 3, causing serious injuries, including head and neck fractures, a punctured ear drum and severe cuts requiring many stitches.

As they stood outside the temple Wednesday, two of the ousted directors displayed large, purplish scars on their heads.

The board decided to close the temple as a result of the violence, according to the court papers.

But on Oct. 10, several armed dissidents entered the temple and took it over, also taking control of thousands of dollars worth of donations, the lawsuit alleges.

The dissidents declined to talk about the allegations of violence, and their attorney, Maurice Schwartz, could not be reached.

But dissident Bhajan Singh said that about 300 temple members, led by the dissidents, have signed a petition that excommunicated the board of directors. Now, he said, all members are sharing leadership.

“In the Sikh religion, the congregation is supreme and decides who it wants to run the affairs of the temple,” he said. “The board members are the rich boys--the owners of the 7-Elevens and everything. Most of the members are working people. Every six-pack Joe has donated his life and money to this temple.”

He called the allegations of a violent takeover “ridiculous.”