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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016
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MIDWEST / EASTCOAST
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community news- east coast 2
Friday, 25 NOVEMBER, 2016
Bihar-Jharkhand Assn celebrates Diwali
BY A STAFF WRITER DISON, NJ – The BiharJharkhand Association of North America (BJANA) community celebrated Diwali 2016 at Royal Albert Palace, Edison, New Jersey with great joy and enthusiasm. About 300 people of Bihar and Jharkhand origin came from the northeastern states of the US which included residents of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York , Connecticut, Delaware and Virginia. BJANA is a 41-year-old not-for-profit organization. It was for the first time that BJANA had a media sponsor as huge as Zee. In her speech the president of BJANA, Anjali Prasad, talked about the achievements of the organization and charity work for Bihar Flood Relief. She said it was due to the dedicated efforts of her executive committee members and volunteers that BJANA was now beginning to emerge as a well-known
1 dies as small plane crashes into homes
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M organization across the US and also in the states of Bihar & Jharkhand. The Diwali event turned out to be a wonderful meeting place for all Bihar and Jharkhand people here in the United States. New members as well as prominent members from the community, including
doctors from Bihar and Jharkhand origin in the tristate area, were present to show their support to the organization. On the whole, it was an enjoyable evening with delectable food, cultural performances from community kids, musical and orchestra.
Sikh Harvard student abused, harassed BY A STAFF WRITER OSTON, MS -- A 22-year-old Sikh Indian American, studying at the prestigious Harvard Law School, was allegedly abused and harassed at a store near the campus by a man who mistook him for a Muslim. Harmann Singh, a first-year law student at the university, said he was shopping in a store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while speaking on the phone with his mother, when a man walked in and said to the clerk behind the counter, “Oh look, there’s a (expletive) Muslim.” According to Singh, the man started following him around the store, harassing him and asking him where he was from. Singh, who is from Buffalo, New York, said he tried to ignore the man and continued
BY A STAFF WRITER OSS BEACH, CA -- One person died and another was airlifted to a hospital in serious condition after a small plane crashed into two homes and a pickup truck near Half Moon Bay Airport on November 18. The first reports of a small-plane crash in Moss Beach came in around 11:20 am, and firefighting crews responded to the 1000 block of Park Way. Two people were aboard the plane, a singleengine Cessna 172, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, which will investigate the crash. The aircraft crashed about 1½ miles from the airport, hitting two houses and a pickup truck before coming to rest at the second home it hit, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief David Cosgrave. One person in the plane was pronounced dead at the scene. The other, who appeared to be a man, was flown to Stanford Medical Center by a California Highway Patrol helicopter. FAA officials said the plane had taken off on November 18 from Sacramento Executive Airport and was headed to Half Moon Bay Airport when the crash occurred. Cynthia Trujillo, who lives at one of the homes the aircraft hit, said no one inside her house was injured.
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Harmann Singh
his conversation with his mother, who was worried. She could hear the man questioning Singh and told her son to leave the shop. Singh said the man followed him to the checkout counter. “I told him, ‘Hey I’m actually from New
York. I live here now down the street. Is there anything I can do to help you?’” Singh said. The man did not respond and Singh left the store as quickly as possible. A bystander who checks in with the person being harassed in any situation can make all the difference, he said. The owner of the store said that he was going back and forth between the back and front of the shop at the time of the incident that took place on November 11 and saw the man who spoke to Singh come in. He said he had planned to ask the man to leave, but went to the back of the store when the incident occurred. Both Singh and the other man were gone when he returned. He said he was shocked and sorry when his clerk told him what happened.
Woman under attack for wearing a ‘hijab’
Couple may get 20-yr jail for forced labor BY A STAFF WRITER TOCKTON, CA -- An Indian American couple in Stockton, Calif., Satish Kartan, 43, and his wife, Sharmistha Barai, 38, were indicted by a grand jury on November 17 for forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor. The two may be jailed for 20 years if convicted. According to the Department of Justice, Kartan was also charged with fraud in contacting foreign labor and Barai was also charged with benefiting from forced labor. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Acting US Attorney Phillip A. Talbert of the Eastern District of California announced the indictment. Court documents said that between February 21, 2014, and October 3, 2016, Kartan and Barai hired workers from overseas to perform domestic labor in their homes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Stockton and elsewhere in the United States. In advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the defendants made false claims regarding the wages and the duties of employment. Once the workers arrived at the defendants’ residences, Kartan and Barai forced them to work 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment. The defendants did not pay wages and
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Salonica ‘Nicki’ Pancholy
BY A STAFF WRITER AN FRANCISCO, CA -- A 41-year-old Indian American woman was racially attacked in Milpitas, Calif., after a bandana on her head was mistaken as a hijab, the latest in a series of assaults following Donald Trump’s election win. Salonica ‘Nicki’ Pancholy was on her ‘peace walk’ when upon her return she found her car window shattered, her purse gone and a note calling her a “Hijab wearing b****,” and asking her to ‘get the f--- out’. Pancholy is not Muslim, nor does she wear a hijab. She is a Rajasthani and has been battling Lupus, which caused her hair loss, and put the bandana on her head as protection from the sun. She had been hiking in Mission Peak (just north of San Jose) every morning for the past 65 days before this happened. The police are investigating the note as a hate crime and auto burglary as her windows were smashed and someone stole her purse and checkbook, it said. Pancholy is just one of a growing number of people across the country, even in the Democratic stronghold of the Bay Area, to fall victim to hateful harassment since Trump was elected president.
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used force, physical restraint and coercive conduct to get the workers to perform the labor and services. The indictment alleges that Kartan and Barai struck one worker on multiple occasions, including one incident where Kartan grabbed her hands and caused them to be burned over the flames of a gas stove. Moreover, the indictment alleges that the defendants failed to pay another worker and told her that they would call the police if she tried to leave. When she was ultimately able to arrange to be picked up from the defendants’ house, Kartan refused
to provide her with the access code to the gated community so that her ride could enter, said the DOJ statement. On October 21, 2016, Kartan and Barai were arrested on a criminal complaint and were released on bond with special conditions that prohibit them from hiring any nonrelatives to perform domestic services or child care work for them. The defendants were also prohibited from directly or indirectly contacting any of their prior domestic workers. If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.