Hindu Sect Is Accused of Using Forced Labor to Build N.J. Temple

Federal agents descended on the massive temple in Robbinsville, N.J., as a lawsuit claimed low-caste men had been lured from India to work for about $1 an hour.

Federal law enforcement agents descended on a massive temple in New Jersey on Tuesday after workers accused a prominent Hindu sect of luring them from India, confining them to the temple grounds and paying them the equivalent of about $1 an hour to perform grueling labor in near servitude. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, lawyers for the laborers said Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu sect known as BAPS that has close ties to India’s ruling party and has built temples around the world, had exploited possibly hundreds of low-caste men in the yearslong construction project. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. confirmed agents were on the grounds of the temple in rural Robbinsville, N.J., but would not comment further. The action is believed to be connected to the claims of labor and immigration law violations, according to several people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.