A Dallas man was charged with a federal hate crime, accused of calling a Sikh nonprofit organization and threatened its employees, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bhushan Athale, 48, was charged with one count of interfering with federally protected activities through the threatened use of a dangerous weapon and one count of transmitting an interstate threat to injure another person, the release said.
Athale is accused of calling the organization, which that advocates for the civil rights of Sikh individuals in the U.S. in September 2022 and leaving seven voicemails “expressing extreme hate” for the organization’s Sikh employees and threatening to injure or kill them with a razor, the release said.
The voicemails contained references to “particularly significant” places, people and tenets of the Sikh religion, the release said. He is accused of stating his intention to shave the Sikh employees’ heads and make them smoke tobacco, both of which are banned in the Sikh religion.
According to the release, Athale allegedly called the nonprofit again in March and left two more voicemails, expressing hatred for both Sikh individuals and Muslim individuals. The release also said an investigation revealed Athale had a history of making comments and threats against certain religions and had allegedly threatened via a professional social networking site to kill a former coworker’s family.
If convicted, Athale faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on the interference charge and five years in prison on the interstate threat charge, the release said.
The release said the FBI’s Philadelphia office investigated the case. It did not name the Sikh advocacy organization.
Harbhajan Singh, who leads the Gurdwara Nishkam Seva in Irving, said he does not celebrate the federal hate crime charge but said it’s important to document hate-fueled incidents.
”That gives us statistics and tells us how many people are doing that, and what we need to do and what our elected officials need to do to reduce those types of things,” Singh said.
He also said he thinks the charge could make Sikhs, including those in Dallas, feel safer.
”We should not hate any person from this community or any other community,” Singh said.