3-year jail for Sikh attackers

Maan S. Khalsa after he was attacked in September 2016

May 19: Two men were sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for attacking a Sikh man in California last year, repeatedly punching him through his car window and cutting off his hair

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The men, Chase B. Little and Colton T. Leblanc, both of Texas, each pleaded no contest to felony assault with a hate crime enhancement in the beating of Maan S. Khalsa, 41, in Richmond, California, near San Francisco, on September 25, 2016.

Khalsa, an information technology specialist, was dressed in traditional Sikh clothes, including a turban, while heading to a religious ceremony.

The defendants, along with three other men, had been drinking that day and were on their way to get food when they pulled up next to Khalsa's car, Simon O'Connell of the Contra Costa district attorney's office said in October.

Beer cans were thrown at Khalsa, who rolled down his window and said, "You guys forgot something."

At the next red light, Little, 31, and Leblanc, 25, exited the truck and the attack began. They disturbed Khalsa's turban and cut up to 10 inches of his hair with a knife.

Unshorn hair is sacred in the Sikh religion, so the act of cutting it prompted the hate crime charge, the prosecutor's office said. Khalsa also sustained a black eye, tooth damage and knife wounds. Part of his little finger was later amputated because of an infection from one of the wounds.

In a statement he read to a full courtroom yesterday, Khalsa said: "It will take me many years, maybe the rest of my life, to heal from this attack. But the recognition of the attack as a hate crime - as harm to my dignity - is the first step in the process."

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Nowhere is this seen more pronounced than in the above case.

Khalsa was attacked in September 2016 and he has been convicted in May 2017, ie in just 8 months.

If the above crime had been committed in India, the police would still be searching for the perpetrators of the crime. leave alone punishing them.

Whom should we blame, the government who is trying to pack the judiciary with saffron coloured judges so that they can fulfill the government's agenda or the judiciary who adjourn cases for the slightest reason or the police who are open to manipulation by the politician and the cash rich criminals?