Indian American Man Charged With Federal Hate Crime for Making Threats Against Employees of Sikh Organization

An Indian American man from Texas has been charged with a federal hate crime for allegedly making interstate threats against the employees of a Sikh nonprofit organization. Bhushan Athale, 48, of Dallas, faces “one count of interfering with federally protected activities through the threatened use of a dangerous weapon and one count of transmitting an interstate threat to injure another person,” the Department of Justice announced yesterday (June 5).

In September 2022 Athale called the main number of an organization that advocates for the civil rights of Sikh individuals within the United States, the DOJ said, citing the criminal complaint. Over the next hour, he left seven voicemails expressing extreme hatred toward Sikhs working at this same organization. “His voicemails, which were filled with violent imagery and obscenity, contained references to places, people and tenets that are particularly significant within the Sikh religion,” the DOJ said. He also stated his intention to “catch” the Sikhs at the organization, forcibly “shave” the “top and bottom hair” of these individuals, use a “razor” to forcibly “cut” these individuals’ hair and “make” them bald, forcibly “make” them smoke and eat tobacco and “show [them] the heaven.”

He again called the same Sikh organization in March, and left two more voicemails. In these voicemails, “he again used violent imagery to express his hatred toward Sikhs as well as Muslims.” In those voicemails, he suggested, among other things, that “the Indian Government and Mumbai Police should “catch them and beat their ass” and “f*ck these rascals’ mothers.” 

The DOJ investigation found that Athale has “a long history of making religious-based comments and threats.” Previously, he used a professional networking site to express to a former co-worker that he “hate[d] Pakistan” and “hate[d] Muslims,” and he told the co-worker “I hate you, I just don’t know how to kill your whole family including you?  Tell me???  I will figure it out […] Probably I will hire a Jew, they will be most happy.”

See Also

Suchana Seth, Who is Accused of Murdering Her 4-year-old Son on Holiday in Goa, was a Harvard Fellow

Athene’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a self-employed Salesforce & Peoplesoft consultant with expertise in “complete ERP Software development lifecycle (SDLC) in AGILE & Waterfall methodologies.” He has a Master of Computer Applications in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Dayton. 

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for interfering with federally protected activities and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for transmitting an interstate threat. Both charges also carry a penalty of up to a $250,000 fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.