Washington, United States (May 30, 2013): It is learnt that the accused of brutally attacking an 81-year-old Sikh, Bapu Piara Singh, outside a Gurdwara Sahib in the United States on May 5, 2013 has pleaded ‘not guilty’ of attempted murder and elderly abuse.
Accused Gilbert Garcia, 29, was arrested for brutally attacking Piara Singh (81) with a steel rod outside the Nanaksar Sikh Gurdwara on South Cherry Avenue, southwest Fresno, in central California around 7 a.m. on May 5.
As per media reports the accused appeared before the Fresno County Superior Court on May 29, 2013 and pleaded not guilty to the charges, which the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office described as a hate crime.
Garcia, who was arrested around an hour after the attack that left Singh with broken ribs, lung lacerations and head wounds, has a record of arrests in the Fresno area.
Garcia is being held in lieu of a bail of $1.7 million and a hearing has been scheduled for June 26.
The newly-formed American Sikh Congressional Caucus is pushing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the case as a hate crime.