Teen pleads guilty of hate crime in US
Thursday, 17/12/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
New York : An American teenager accused of brutally beating up an elderly Sikh man in the US and calling him a “terrorist” and “Bin Laden” has pleaded guilty to one count of hate crime.
The 17-year-old pleaded guilty on December 7 to hitting Inderjit Mukker, 53, of Darien and will be sentenced in February in juvenile court.
Mukker was assaulted on September 8 when the Willowbrook teen pulled up to his car yelling racial slurs, including, “Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!” A US citizen and a father of two, Mukker was on his way to a grocery store and was repeatedly cut off by a driver.
He pulled over to the side of the road to let the driver pass, but the driver instead pulled in front of his car and aggressively approached Mukker’s vehicle.
The assailant then repeatedly punched Mukker in the face, causing him to lose consciousness, bleed profusely and suffer a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek.
Initially, the authorities had said they would not bring hate crime charges against the teenager, sparking outrage among members of the community.
