Queens man cuffed for vandalizing Gandhi statue in Richmond Hill
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A 27-year-old from Little Neck was arrested over the weekend for allegedly participating in one of the two attacks on a Hindu temple in Richmond Hill last month. File photo via Richard David
By Jacob Kaye
Police have arrested a man they believe to be one of several behind an attack on a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside of a Hindu temple in Richmond Hill last month.
Sukhpal Singh, 27, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime this week after he allegedly joined a group of at least four other people to smash the statue of the civil rights leader and vandalize the temple in August, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Monday.
Prosecutors say Singh, who now faces up to 15 years in prison, was part of the group that perpetrated the second attack on the temple, which is the place of worship for a number of Guyanese, Indo-Caribbean and South Asian Hindus in the neighborhood.
The first attack came in early August, when the statue of Gandhi was knocked over during an alleged act of vandalism.
The attack that Singh allegedly participated in later in the month left the statue demolished.
The attack prompted widespread outrage and condemnation from a number of local residents, Hindu leaders and elected officials, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The vandalism comes as anti-Hindi attacks are on the rise in the U.S.
A July study from Network Contagion Lab at Rutgers University found that anti-Hindu sentiment has been on the rise on online platforms over the past several years and that social media platforms have yet to flag much of the speech associated with anti-Hindu remarks or memes.
Overall, hate crimes have also increased in the five boroughs in recent years. In 2022, there have been over 330 confirmed hate incidents, a 127 percent increase when compared to the same period in 2020, according to NYPD data. There were around the same number of hate crime incidents in 2021 through August as there have been this year, NYPD data shows.
Prosecutors say that on Aug. 16, around 3 a.m., Singh drove a number of people to the Shri Tulsi Mandir on 111th Street in Richmond Hill.
Surveillance footage from that night allegedly shows five people pushing over the Gandhi statue before beating it with a sledge hammer that they had brought to the temple.
They also spray painted the words “Kutta Dog” on the broken statue, a derogatory phrase in Hindi.
The five vandals then ran off toward Liberty Avenue. Several then got into a Mercedes Benz C-Class car, and the others got into a black Toyota Camry.
Investigators with the NYPD later found that the Mercedes Benz was registered to Singh.
Sukhpal Singh of Little Neck was arrested in connection to one of two attacks on a Mahatma Gandhi statue that formerly stood outside of a Hindu temple in Queens this week. At least four other perpetrators remain unapprehended. File photo via NYPD
“As alleged, the defendant, along with several unapprehended others, committed a disgraceful act of violence against a Mahatma Gandhi statue that has become a universal symbol of peace, unity and inclusivity,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “Hate and bias-motivated attacks have no place in our communities and my Office will hold such perpetrators accountable. The defendant has been apprehended and is charged appropriately.”
Singh, who lives in Little Neck, was arrested on Saturday. He was charged with one count of criminal mischief in the second degree as a hate crime, criminal mischief in the second degree and aggravated harassment in the first degree, according to prosecutors.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Odessa Kennedy ordered Singh to return to court on Oct. 17.
Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, who represents the area the mandir is located in and who became the first Hindu elected to the State Legislature upon her swearing-in in 2021, said she was heartened by the response from elected officials and community leaders in New York City and beyond in the days and weeks following the attacks.
“What began as a conversation between me and local Hindu leaders at the mandir last month became a global discussion that even drew support from the White House with President Biden condemning this hate-fueled attack,” Rajkumar said.
The assemblymember added that she was calling against “harsh punishment against the perpetrator.”
“Gandhi himself believed that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” she said. “In keeping with this spirit, I call for all those involved in this act of hate to educate themselves about the mutual respect and inclusivity taught by Gandhi, and adopt love in their hearts towards all. Myself and the Hindu community are ready to embrace them with open arms. I invite the perpetrators to drop the sledgehammer and join with us in the cause of peace.”
Elected officials and community leaders gathered in front of the Shri Tulsi Mandir in August following two separate vandalisms targeting a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside of the Hindu temple. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
Romeo Hitlall, of the Federation of Hindu Mandirs, told the Eagle that despite the arrest, the Hindu community in Richmond Hill remains “very concerned.”
“It's violence,” Hitlall said. “We consider it hate, yes, but at the same time, we're worried about what could be next.”
There have been clashes and conflict between religious groups in India, where an overwhelming majority of Hindus live, since the partitioning of the country in the late 1940s.
However, Hitlall said he doesn’t believe that the attacks are related to any international conflict.
“It's tension, what's happening abroad, but I think it’s just young men who were just looking for some attention,” Hitlall said.
Richard David, a district leader in the area and a congregant at the mandir, said that while “all the options” for the perpetrators’ motivations should be considered, he noted that the congregation of the mandir, many of whom are Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean, haven’t been participants in the religious tensions felt in India for the past eight decades.
“Guyana is a country that escaped a lot of the division and trauma of partition that caused a lot of religious tensions that live with South Asian communities today,” David said. “Inter-religious tensions are very, very foreign to Indo-Caribbean people and this is an Indo-Caribbean Hindu mandir.”
“And so this was shocking for a number of reasons,” David added.
Rajkumar also noted that the diversity of Richmond Hill makes the attacks all the more surprising.
“We have realized Gandhi’s dream here in Richmond Hill, where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Jews live together in harmony, often on the same block,” she said. “We will not let any hate-fueled perpetrators stand in the way of that peace.”
Shri Tulsi Mandir has served as a place of refuge for Richmond Hill residents during several recent crises.
At the start of and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders at the Hindu temple handed out food to those in need, according to David. Once a week, lines would form outside of the mandir and “thousands of families” would be fed “indiscriminately.”
After a fire on Liberty Avenue broke out and damaged and destroyed a number of buildings in the neighborhood several years ago, the mandir offered aid, David said.
“This mandir opened its doors to allow the victims to be there and to be a central meeting point for families to come and get food, and to get clothing,” he told the Eagle in August. “We worked really carefully to create a space that is community centered like that.”
