10 month jail to Swiss man for assaulting Sikh

Amritsar: A court in Switzerland has sentenced a white man for hurling a racist remark against a Sikh and dragging him on road some four years ago. Talking to TOI on Saturday, victim Ranjit Singh Masuta said that the Swiss court on Friday awarded 10 months’ jail to Buchler Max.

Masuta said the court had also directed Max to pay a court proceedings fee of Swiss Francs 18,000, lawyers’ fee of Swiss Francs 15,000 and a compensation of Swiss Francs 2,000 to him. He said the court stated if the accused wanted to evade imprisonment he would had to pay additional Swiss Francs 18,000 at the rate of 60 Swiss Francs per day for 300 days.

Giving details of the incident, Masuta said that on August 3, 2013, he, along with his family, had gone to drop his children at a ‘gurmat’ camp held at Gurdwara Langenthal. “This racist Swiss man was drunk and followed me in his car up to the gurdwara and hurled racist remarks at me,” he said, adding that when he confronted Max, the latter drove back his car at full throttle and dragged him on the road for nearly 50 feet, leaving him seriously injured. “Luckily my children were not hurt in the incident,” he said.

He alleged that initially the Swiss police didn’t take the case seriously, so he went to the court, where a public prosecutor also closed the case on two occasions in favour of Max. “But then the Sikh community of Switzerland approached the highest court of the country, which ordered reopening and reinvestigation in my case,” he maintained.

Masuta further said that the judgement was pronounced by a bench of five judges after intensive three days of the court process. “This victory will encourage others fellow Sikhs to fight against racist attacks till they reach a logical end,” he added.