5 charged with harassing, beating a Sikh in US

Police have charged five persons for harassing and beating a Sikh in a suburb of New York after hurling insults on him and his companion. If convicted, they could get up to 15 years in prison.

In the July 12 incident, Rajinder Singh Khalsa and his cousin Gurcharan Singh were walking towards a restaurant, Tandoori Express, owned by the latter when they were confronted by apparently drunken men who ridiculed their turbans calling them 'dirty curtain' and asking them to take them off.

When Khalsa tried to explain that they were Sikhs and their turbans were religious symbols, the accused started beating, kicking and hitting him till he fell unconscious.

The attack took place in the Richmond section of Queens, which has a substantial immigrant population. Khalsa (54) suffered multiple cuts, bruises and a broken nose. He had migrated from India with his family in the mid 1990s.

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Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the arrested men, identified as Nicholas Maceli (22), Victor Cosentino (58), Terence Lyons (53), Ryan Meehan (18) and Salvatore Maceli (26) have been charged with multiple counts, including second-degree assault.

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, Sikhs have been at the receiving end of several attacks and verbal abuses as they are mistaken for Muslims because of their beard and turban.

Sikh organisations had launched a major media campaign to correct the impression and some even wore a button saying: I am a Sikh.