An Indian American named Bhushan Athale was charged with a hate crime for threatening employees of a Sikh body. Athale is a resident of Texas and had allegedly issued interstate threats against employees of a Sikh nonprofit organization.
Athale in his statement, has said that he has ‘extreme hatred’ for Sikh organization employees. In other voicemails, he had expressed hatred for Pakistan and Muslims as well.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said that a 48-year-old Indian-American man has been charged with federal hate crimes after he allegedly threatened employees of a Sikh non-profit organization.
In an official statement, the Department said that Bhushan Athale might face a 10-year prison sentence for interfering with activities that are federally protected by allegedly threatening to use a dangerous weapon.
He has also been charged with another penalty of a maximum of five years for an interstate threat, and both of these charges have penalties of $2,50,000 each as a rider.
A complaint filed on September 17, 2022, alleged that Athale called the organisation working to safeguard the rights of Sikh people residing within the US.
The statement further claimed that Athale allegedly left seven voicemails expressing “extreme hatred” for Sikh individuals employed at the organisation and threatening to “injure or kill these individuals with a razor”.
“Violent imagery and obscenity, references to places, people and tenets that are particularly significant within the Sikh religion were what Athale’s voicemails contained”, the statement added.
In two other voicemails sent by Athale in March, he allegedly targeted both the Sikh and the Muslim community.
The investigation shows that Athale has a long history of making religious-based comments and threats, such as when he previously took to a professional networking site to express to one of his former colleagues that he “hate(d) Pakistan” and “hate(d) Muslims”, and he told the co-worker, “I hate you, I just don’t know how to kill your whole family, including you? Tell me??? I will figure it out. Probably I will hire a Jew, they will be most happy”.
