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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline SEPTEMBER 02, 2022 | The Indian Eye 21

Indian-origin man charged with

hate crime against another

OUR BUREAU
Fremont, CA
n Indian-descent man has
been charged with hate
Acrime against another In-
dian-descent man in perhaps the
first of its kind case, according to
agency reports.
California prosecutors have
charged Tejinder Singh, 37 with
hate crime in violation of civ-
il rights, assault and disturbing
the peace by using offensive lan-
guage. He is not in custody but
on probation and a court-date is
awaited.

The Monday incident in Cali-

fornia is perhaps the first in-
stance of an Indian-descent
American being accused of
committing a hate crime

against another India-de-
scent person. Singh picked
on the victim’s religion, his
country of birth and his

people. In a video record-
ing of the incident, Singh
is seen unloading himself
on another customer, who

has self-identified himself
as Krishnan Jayaraman at a
Taco Bell restaurant in Cal-
ifornia on Monday, accord-

ing to reports.

He mocked Jayaraman’s
order of “bean burritos”, which eign workers to make up for shortage of tinued serving the food on it,” Ja- can told a group of Indian Americans
are vegetarian, and the way he local hands in high specialty fields. The yaraman wrote in a post on twitter, in Plano, Texas last Saturday.
looked, and repeatedly pointed programme has been held responsible by in which he also thanked Fremont She was arrested later. “This in-
to his “open toes”, calling him its critics for layoffs and the backlash has police for responding. cident is a hate crime in accordance
“disgusting”. been felt by Indians working here and The Fremont incident came with Texas laws,” the Plano police
The man went on to dispar- Indian Americans at large, according to close on the heels of another incident said in a statement. “This incident
age Jayaraman as one of those reports. in which Indians or Indian Ameri- may also be a hate crime based on
who came to the US on H-1B “The part that sucked was that the cans were targets of hateful and abu- federal law, and we are working
visa, a short-term non-immi- abuser spit on the counter where food sive language. “Go back to India, we closely with the FBI and the Depart-
grant work visa that is issued for was being served and despite pointing don’t want you here,” a woman, who ment of Justice Civil Rights Division
American companies to hire for- that out, the Taco Bell employees con- identified herself as Mexican-Ameri- on this case.”

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