Hate Crime: Teen charged with felony after attacking Sikh man

Attacked 58-year-old man

A teenager was charged with four counts of felony aggravated battery and a hate crime after attacking a Sikh man.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - Chicago authorities described what began as road rage and ended as a hate crime in Darien September eighth. 

DuPage County State's Attorney's Office released information regarding 53-year-old Inderjit

Mukker's verbal and physical abuse at the hands of a 17-year-old Willowbrook resident.

State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin stated, "Crimes based on hatred or prejudices have no place in our society ... Any physical attack motivated in whole or in part by an offender's preconceived bias against another individual based on race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation is a crime not only against the victim but against society as a whole."

The unnamed teen yelled racial slurs from his vehicle at Mukker and somehow got Mukker to pull over to the side of the road, at which point the teenager exited his vehicle and punched Mukker in the face.

The Sikh Coalition demanded the teen to be charged with a hate crime since the teenager called Mukker a terrorist, among other names. 

The group's legal director Harsimran Kaur said, "For the Sikh American community, a formal hate crime charge was never about a harsher penalty, but instead prosecuting the crime for what it was."

Mukker said, "This was a hate crime. I was attacked because of the color of my skin and my articles of faith."

The teenager was charged as a juvenile with four counts of felony aggravated battery for allegedly attacking Mukker and for punching a police officer in the face when officers went to arrest him from his home.

Paul Darrah, DuPage County State's Attorney Office spokesman, said this might be only the second case in which a minor was charged with a hate crime in the past nine years.

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