The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
An alleged bias incident against a township Sikh boy has members of the religious community calling for justice.
According to Ardaman Singh, who described the incident at the November 28 Township Council meeting, the unnamed boy was assaulted by a man who, she said, “aggressively put his hands on the young man and threatened further violence with a bat.”
The man also used anti-Sikh language directed at the boy, she said.
“Despite a full investigation by our Franklin Township Police Department, which included eyewitness interviews and a video recording, they are referring to the case as one of simple assault and bias intimidation,” said Singh, who is also the vice-president of the Board of Education. “The Somerset County Prosecutor has refused to bring any charges against the adult male.”
“I want to emphasize that this was not merely a case of boys being boys, but an adult, a parent no less, threatening and physically harming a child,” she said.
Singh said the local Sikh community is “working with the Sikh coalition to engage the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. In the days ahead, the Sikh members of our community will also be mobilizing to demand appropriate action and charges are brought.”
“I invite you all to join us in calling for this case to move through the justice system because we all know that our community is strongest when we stand for one another,” Singh said. “No community will stand for an attack on one of its own, no less a youth with a bright future ahead of him.”
