Source: New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/365648p-311394c.html

On November 15, 2005 the New York Daily News reported, "A Queens man took the stand to tell how he was viciously punched and kicked in the face by a group of men who made fun of his Sikh religion. 'I was punched two to three times... I was feeling the earth was moving around,' said Rajinder Singh Khalsa, 54, who identified four of five defendants on trial in the July 2004 assault.

Khalsa, who suffered a broken nose, fractured eye socket, blurred vision and other injuries, also identified himself in photos showing his graphic injuries.

'My nose was crushed, all the bones, I could not breath,' he said.

The assault started after several men who had been attending a christening at a catering hall next to an Indian restaurant made fun of the turban worn by Khalsa's cousin Gurcharan Singh.

One man called the turban a 'dirty curtain,' Khalsa said. 'I told him this is not a dirty curtain,' said Khalsa, who took the stand before Queens Supreme Court Justice Seymour Rotker, who is trying the case without a jury. 'I said the turban is a symbol of our religion so we wear it'... If convicted, the men face up to 15 years for assault as a hate crime."