Indian-American jailed for hate crime against Sikh organisation staffer

A 49-year-old Indian-American man was sentenced to 26 months in prison for threatening to injure and kill employees of a Sikh non-profit organisation. Bhushan Athale, a resident of Dallas, Texas, is said to have a history of making faith-based remarks.

Athale pleaded guilty before US District Judge, Edward S Kiel, in Camden Federal Court to interfering with federally protected activities through the threatening use of a dangerous weapon and one count of transmitting an interstate threat to injure another person, the US Department of Justice said in a June 3 statement.

He was punished for a federal hate crime and for making violent interstate threats against various individuals based on their religion, including the employees of a Sikh nonprofit organisation located in New Jersey.

On September 17, 2022, Athale called the main number of the organisation that advocates for the civil rights of Sikh individuals within the US, leaving numerous messages over several hours threatening to injure or kill these individuals with a razor and other very specific acts of violence, the statement stated.

REPEAT THREAT LACED WITH VIOLENT, HATE-FILLED LANGUAGE

On March 21, 2024, Athale again called the same Sikh organisation and left two more voicemails.

In these voicemails, Athale again used violent, sexual imagery to express his hatred toward Sikhs as well as Muslims, according to the Department of Justice.

In addition to a 26-month prison sentence, Judge Kiel sentenced him to three years of supervised release. The judge also prohibited him from contacting any individuals targeted by his actions.

HE HAD A HISTORY OF MAKING RELIGION-BASED COMMENTS: PROBE

"The Department of Justice has no tolerance for hate-fuelled threats of violence in our country, and we appreciate the strong efforts of US Attorney Alina Habba and her team in working with us to bring this perpetrator to justice," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The investigation showed that Athale has a long history of making religion-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 (sic)".

Habba credited the special agents of the FBI Philadelphia Field Office which helped with the investigation.