Hailing from Etah district, Lal earned a PhD in crop physiology from Kanpur University in 1983 and another in social science from Kansas State University, USA in 1990. He took over as director of Allahabad University affiliated Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI) in 1992 and continues to head it till date — in 2016, the AAI became SHUATS, a state varsity. Its campus is spread across 650 acres in the Naini area of Prayagraj and also has farms and research facilities in the Meja and Lohra areas of Prayagraj besides the Lodhwari area of Rae Bareli district of UP. The varsity has around 8,000 students, 1,500 teachers and non-teaching employees.

In November 2023, a former employee of a school run by another SHUATS director (Lal’s brother, Vinod) accused senior members of the administration of sexually assaulting her and her minor children. A First Information Report was lodged by Ghoorpur police. The woman alleged that she and her now-deceased husband were induced to convert to Christianity by Lal. According to the FIR, the woman claimed that in 2011, she and her now-late husband were approached by two pastors from Yeshu Darbar. They then allegedly promised the couple a job in a school Prayagraj, financial assistance for their children’s studies, and accommodation if the family converted.

The woman claimed that after their conversion, she and her husband were given employment at the Christy Memorial School and College affiliated with SHUATS. However, things took a turn for the worse and she was allegedly pressured to provide sexual favours to school chairman Vinod B Lal, who is also SHUATS director (administration) and his brother, SHUATS Prof RB Lal. She further alleged that the school supervisor also molested her minor daughters. She also claimed that she was coerced to recruit more individuals for religious conversions.

Lal’s journey as godman

In 2000, Lal was baptised by preacher evangelist Pastor Ulf Ekman of the Word of Life Church, Sweden. The Word of Life Church is a Missouri, USA headquartered church founded in 1981 that claims to be “a worshipping and just community committed to staying on The Journey of following Jesus, making disciples of the Jesus way, and loving both our church and our neighbours.”

Lal started what he called a “spiritual movement” and a small group of locals started meeting in his house located on the campus of SHUATS in the Naini area of Prayagraj on Saturdays. On Sundays, he would meet other followers at the Chapel of Brotherly Love, also located at the SHUATS campus.

As founder Bishop of ‘Yeshu Darbar’, he began conducting healing sessions for the sick. He also took on the honorific ‘Reverend’. His “miracles, healings and wonders”—as the official website of SHUATS puts it— brought in believers from all communities who assembled in large numbers each Sunday “to receive healing from all kinds of diseases and sickness and deliverance from evil possession”.

The period also saw Prof RB Lal consolidate his control of the varsity with his wife Sudha Lal also playing a role as ex-officio director (Campus Ministry) and his brothers Vinod B Lal and Sunil B Lal serving as director (Administration) and director (Development).

Though controversies over the validity of the courses being offered by the government-aided institution in distance education mode and alleged conversions made news from time to time — slain mafia politician Atiq Ahmad was arrested in December 2016 after he and his henchmen attacked employees of the institute, leading to Ahmad’s arrest — major trouble came Lal’s way only in 2017.

Cases pile up

In May 2016, an FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station of Prayagraj against several Axis Bank and SHUATS employees for alleged misappropriation of funds amounting to ₹23 crore between 2013 and 2016. The case was registered on a complaint by Axis Bank assistant vice president Yogesh Vajpayee. Lal, who was named as an accused, was sent to jail after the Allahabad additional sessions judge in April 2019 rejected his interim bail application. Lal was taken into judicial custody and sent to jail. After a Supreme Court direction dated April 5, 2019, Lal was granted bail by a trial court the following month.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was in charge of the probe into the multi-crore bank fraud case, charge-sheeted 26 persons including 20 bank officials as well as a bank official’s wife, driver and an accountant of SHUATS in December 2021.

The Prayagraj police said that Lal has over two dozen cases registered against him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh districts but received relief from the Supreme Court and the Allahabad high court in many of the cases. These charges included mass conversion, fake appointments and financial irregularities worth crores, illegally transferring land worth crores, using names, and addresses of dead persons for personal gains and fraud of arms licences, besides attempts to murder, issuing threats and assault.

Sam Naqvi, Lal’s lawyer in the Prayagraj district court, said the cases lacked substance. “The Supreme Court has already stayed his arrest in almost all cases including three filed in Naini and one in Ghoorpur police stations of Prayagraj along with five cases filed in police stations of Fatehpur district,” he said.

The latest FIR — based on an attempt to murder complaint — was registered on December 31, 2023. Diwakar Nath Tripathi, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who served as BJP Kashi Pranth’s vice-president till 2021, filed the complaint.

A pranth is an organisational region that covers 12 administrative districts, including Prayagraj and Varanasi, and Diwakar was removed from the party reportedly owing to differences with senior BJP leader and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

According to Naqvi, “The FIR was registered at 1.49 pm [on December 31] while the police team reached to arrest him at 1.48 pm as seen in the CCTV footage of the guest house. Prof Lal had been keeping poor health and remained admitted at Apollo Hospital, New Delhi for many weeks. He came to Prayagraj only for important work related to his institution and is still in poor health. The court will ensure justice,” he said.

Lal was arrested from a guest house located near the university in the Naini area and taken to the district court amid tight security, ACJM Palak Ganguly sent Lal to 14 days judicial custody.

DCP (trans-Yamuna)-Prayagraj Abhinav Tyagi confirmed the development and said, “RB Lal was arrested in connection with the case registered at Naini police station under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 427 (mischief causing loss or damage to the amount of ₹50 or upwards) on Sunday."

In his complaint, Tripathi, a resident of Karbala road, claimed that on the morning of December 31, he had gone for a walk with his friend, Sharvendra Vikram Singh. He alleged that while returning in his car at 6.40 am, near a culvert on Bandh Road, Lal and two associates travelling in an SUV stopped the car and threatened as well as abused him.

As per the complaint, Lal ordered the two associates with him to open fire with the intention of killing Tripathi but the bullets hit the car. Tripathi alleged that he was attacked on earlier occasions also at the behest of Lal.

“This is not the first attack by RB Lal on me. Earlier too such attacks have taken place as I have opposed his wrongdoings from time to time. I have lodged eight cases earlier too against him with the police but he has managed to evade arrest on the strength of his contacts, reach and money,” said Tripathi.

"Search is on for two people who were with RB Lal at the time of the attack on Diwakar Nath Tripathi and who had opened fire during the incident,” the cop quoted above said.

Officials of SHUATS, however, dismiss all charges levelled against Lal.

“A dismissed employee of SHUATS, Isaac Frank, along with Diwakar Tripathi, has formed an organised group of anti-social elements and is continuously exerting blackmailing pressure on SHUATS officials. Since 2017, Diwakar Tripathi has been continuously giving false complaints to the government and administration by making fabricated allegations against SHUATS officials when his blackmail demands are not met. He has also filed many false FIRs for creating pressure. Courts have granted relief from arrest to the vice-chancellor Prof RB Lal in all the cases. Not a single allegation has been proved in any court to date,” says Brijesh Pandey, PRO, SHUATS.

“SHUATS demands from UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that Diwakar Tripathi and his associates, who are exploiting and harassing the university officials, obstructing the education and research of the students and conspiring to defame the institution by blackmailing be investigated and strict action be taken against him,” Pandey said.

This article has been amended post-publication to correct typographical errors and add information about RB Lal based on the FIR filed on November 30.