By Karminder Singh Dhillon | The Sikh Bulletin |
Professional religious’ hooligans amongst “Sikhs” who have no qualms about physically assaulting, injuring, maiming or attempting to murder those they disagree with justify their criminal acts by claiming that they are protecting the dignity of our Gurus in particular and the religion in general. The uncultured language they use – Sodha Launna remedy through violence – is indicative of their uncivilized justification.
Lower tier hooligans who specialize in causing a ruckus at Gurdwara diwans, removing turbans of other Sikhs, and stopping reformist parcharaks justify their hooliganism by claiming they are safeguarding the sanctity of our Gurdwaras.
The common and underlying claim that both groups of hooligans make – loud and clear – is that they have the courage, valour and mettle to stand up for the Gurus and religion. That they are brave, valiant, and heroic enough to sacrifice their personal self to apply corrective violence – Sodha Launna – on others.
The “courage, valour and heroism” of these religious thugs was in full display one December night in 2020, when a group of hoodlums carried out a murderous attack on Radio Virsa host and Sikh reformist Harnek Singh of New Zealand. These murderous thugs delivered 24 stabs into the body of a helpless man held back by his seat belt. They left him for dead because that was their intent.
THE MURDEROUS ATTACK
The incident is described by Craig Kapitan in his report in the New Zealand Herald as follows:
A controversial Auckland radio host with a global following that included over half a million YouTube subscribers didn’t yet know it as he drove home from his studio on the night of Dec 23, 2020, but some of his on-air remarks had recently resulted in a death sentence being ordered for him.
Also unbeknownst to him, a half-dozen would-be executioners were tailing him while packed into three vehicles, ready to carry out the violent order that had been handed down by a New Zealand-based critic.
That was the alleged scenario painted by prosecutors today as the trial began for four men accused of attempted murder and a fifth man accused of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Crown prosecutor Luke Radich told jurors today during his opening address that “having inflicted these injuries, his attackers quite literally left him for dead.
SEE ALSO: Shocking details from attempted murder trial of radio host Harnek Singh
SEE ALSO: Attack on Sikh talk radio host simply wrong
Prosecutors have named eight alleged conspirators altogether, although three of them have pleaded guilty.
The men – whose faces were covered and whom Harnek Singh did not recognise – came at his vehicle with bats, smashing the windscreen and driver’s window. It took some effort for them to do so, but they managed it. And once they had, they began stabbing him with knives.
He suffered head wounds “right down to the skull” and “extensive wounds” to his neck and upper body, authorities allege. He also suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, a cut to his ear that almost severed it and cuts to one of his arms so bad that two arteries were completely severed – likely leading to his death by blood loss had an officer not turned up quickly and applied a tourniquet, the Crown said.
You could say that he was stabbed within an inch of his life but, in a very real sense, it was probably even less than that,” Radich told jurors. “The Crown case is that this attack was at a level of viciousness that there can be no conclusion other than that the attackers intended to kill.
THE HEROISM OF RELIGIOUS HOOLIGANISM
The “courage and heroism” of these murderous thugs was celebrated across the (un)Sikh world of hooligans who posted posters of “antim ardas” of Harnek Singh, expressed satisfaction that an “enemy of the Gurus and Sikhi” had been dealt with or otherwise eliminated. They proposed a fund drive for their thugs-in-arms in case they got caught and had to face the law. It was as if they had a premonition that the murderous thugs had cut themselves, dropped a knife in Harnek’s car and left plenty of DNA there as well – and thus needed the fund drive to be saved.
This despite the fact that the mastermind baba had assured the murderous thugs that he would make all the weapons and evidence “disappear” with his miraculous powers. Nevertheless, the feeder groups of such hooliganism – the derawadi baba outfits expressed joy at the incident and offered it as a warning to others.
Given that the hooligans and their supporting outfits had trumpeted their “courage, valour and heroism” to stand up for what is right, one would have expected the murderous thugs and their mastermind derawadi thug to walk into a police station and declare that they had done the act, and were prepared to face whatever punishment the law had to mete out to them. Now this would be real “courage and heroism” – even if in the perverted sense.
COWARDICE ON FULL DISPLAY
But what we saw on the first day of the trial of 8 thugs in their attempted murder trial was unmitigated cowardice. All 8 came together in the ugliest display of limitless cowardice whereby each went on a full blown rampage to blame the other for “instigating, prompting, and activating” the other.
The ultimate prize for cowardice must go to the alleged mastermind derawadi baba who has asked for the court to not release his name and photo. One is thus at liberty to call him baba humpty dumpty.
Craig Kapitan reports in the New Zealand Herald as follows.
Prosecutors allege that the attack was orchestrated by a man with name suppression currently on trial for attempted murder.
The oldest defendant, a grey-haired man alleged to have orchestrated the execution attempt, has name suppression.
The man with name suppression is joined in the dock by four co-defendants: Jobanpreet Singh, who is accused of directly participating in the attack inside the radio host’s vehicle; Jagraj Singh and Gurbinder Singh, who allegedly followed Harnek Singh home in a Toyota Prius, offering encouragement or support to the attackers; and Sukhpreet Singh, who is charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly welcoming two of the attackers into his home after the incident.
WHEN 8 CRIMINAL THUGS START TO BLAME EACH OTHER
One of those who pleaded guilty is expected to testify against his former co-defendants as the trial plays out over the month in the High Court at Auckland. Craig Kapitan provides a glimpse of this “blame the other defendant” tactic in his New Zealand Herald report.
During cross-examination of Avtar Singh and another witness today, lawyer Dale Dufty, who represents the man with name suppression, suggested his client had no connection at all to either alleged attack plan. “[He] didn’t tell you to buy the axe, did he?” Dufty asked.
“In actions, kinda,” the witness replied. “Directly, no. But indirectly, yep.”
Dufty responded: “Are you saying you were somehow manipulated into buying the axe and using it?”
The witness’ voice raised as he repeated that he had been young and stupid, and that he had been taken under the wing of a man who was “hinting on a constant basis that something needed to be done, [the radio host] needed to be dealt with”. A direct order wasn’t necessary, he said, comparing the man to a mafioso in his ability to make things happen without saying it directly. Dufty rubbished the description as “a bunch of nonsense”.
Eventually, the witness said, their relationship broke down after he realised the defendant wasn’t a healthy influence.
“He’s a thug,” the man surmised.
The defence lawyer also butted heads today with another witness who said the man with name suppression explicitly tried to recruit him to attack the radio host a week before the 2020 incident.
“He wants me to kill him,” Baljinder Singh, 42, said of an alleged meeting with the defendant in a parked car a week before Harnek Singh’s near-death experience. “I say, ‘No, I’m not doing it.’”
“[He] said Harnek had been talking a lot of shit on the radio … which is not acceptable,” the witness previously told police. “[He said], ‘We want to do something about it and sort it out. Can you help us?’
“I took from what he said that he wanted me to help kill him. He didn’t use those words but I believe this is what he meant.”
WHEN THUGS PRESENT THEMSELVES AS VICTIMS
What the accused persons want the judge, jury and the world to believe is that they were really victims of Harnek Singh’s ideas, views and talks on his radio show. Craig Kapitan quotes the lawyer of the alleged mastermind tell the jury as follows:
“Harnek Singh was an agitator, professional provocateur,” Dufty said as he gave jurors an abbreviated lesson about the India-based Sikh religion and its diaspora in New Zealand. “We sometimes call that clickbait.”
“[He – the alleged mastermind] said Harnek had been talking a lot of shit on the radio … which is not acceptable,” the witness (accused person Baljinder Singh) previously told police. “[He said], ‘We want to do something about it and sort it out. Can you help us?’
“I took from what he said that he wanted me to help kill him. He didn’t use those words but I believe this is what he meant.”
In essence, what these accused persons are making is a forked argument: we did not attempt to murder Harnek Singh, but if we did, it was because we were victims of his “agitation and professional provocation.”
USING THE DEFENCE OF PROVOCATION
It’s funny how people who claim they have the courage, valour and mettle to stand up for the Gurus and religion and are protecting the dignity of our Gurus and the religion and have what it takes to Sodha Launna suddenly turn around to spin a different tale when held accountable. And that what really happened was that they were “provoked into getting into 3 cars and go attack and deliver 24 wounds to a helpless and defenceless man, leaving him for dead.”
It’s hilarious how hooligans who claim they are safeguarding the sanctity of our Gurdwaras become totally consumed in wanting to save their own skin when faced with accountability in a court of law. It would make sense if a husband caught his wife with another person in his own bedroom and instantly drew is gun to shoot that man and or his wife dead. The defence of provocation would make some sense in such a circumstance. But to claim that someone’s views provoked them to carry out a murderous attack can only work when the target audience is a dera crowd and the influencer is baba humpty dumpty.
One gets the feeling that this “we were provoked by his opinions aired on radio” is less of a defence and more of a mitigating plea for a lesser sentence down the line – in the hope that the judge and jury would take pity on these “courageous and brave souls who were out to protect the sanctity of our Gurus and religion.”
MISREPRESENTING SIKHI
It appears that the accused mastermind is finding it hard to find what Harnek Singh actually may have said to “provoke them into wanting to murder him.” Going by the opening statements of defence counsel, comments by Harnek Singh against the agitation by Punjab’s farmers to protest the newly introduced farm bills were presented as incidents of provocation. Even the accused mastermind seemed to understand that this was the lamest of a provocation one could think of. So an attempt was made to link the farmers protest to the religion of Sikhism.
Craig Kapitan quotes the lawyer of the alleged mastermind tell the jury as follows:
In recent years, he said, Harnek Singh had courted controversy with negative comments about orthodox members of the religion. His critics grew in 2020 when the radio host commented on a series of controversial laws that had been recently passed by the Indian parliament in which subsidies were ended for Punjab farmers.
Harnek Singh condemned the actions of the “Sikh farmers and those who were protesting”, Dufty explained. “Obviously, that wasn’t well-liked by Sikh people.” The resulting attack, Dufty said, was “carried out by angry young men who had a bone to pick.”
The alleged mastermind’s lawyer Dufty gave jurors an abbreviated lesson about the Sikh religion and its diaspora in New Zealand. Dufty described the religion as one that was started in the largely agricultural Punjab region of India, and as one that emphasises equality and welfare for all.
The attempt was to link criticism against the farmer’s protest to the Sikh religion. What the mastermind wants the judge, jury and the world to believe is that because Harnek Singh spoke his mind to criticize the farmer’s agitation, he was actually criticising our Gurus and the Sikh religion. And that is because Sikhism was “started in the largely agricultural Punjab region of India.”
This argument is faulty on four grounds. First, the Farmers Agitation was not a Sikh incident, it was a farmers’ incident that involved Hindu farmers, Muslim farmers, Christian farmers, and Sikh farmers. The organizers of the protest took great pains to keep religious leaders out of their movement. How is it then, that only Sikhs were offended by Harnek Singh’s criticism of the event? Is the suggestion here that Sikhs are somewhat more emotionally influenced than others? Second, the whole of India, and probably the whole world was agricultural in the 15th century when Guru Nanak was born. So why is this mundane fact being highlighted if not merely to make a false connection between the Farmers Agitation and the Sikh Gurus? Hence, to imply that there is a connection between the Sikh religion and the Farmers Agitation because the Sikh religion was “started in the largely agricultural Punjab region of India” is problematic. Third, none of the ten Sikh Gurus were Jats (landowner farmers) – they were all Khatris. Fourth, the connotation that the Sikh principle of “welfare for all” was about agriculture – planting crops to feed the masses – is as ludicrous as it is limiting. So the suggestion that criticizing the Farmers Agitation somehow amounted to a disparagement of our Gurus does not hold water.
The people who claim they have the courage, valour and mettle to stand up for the Gurus and religion and are protecting the dignity of our Gurus and the religion are having a difficult time twisting and turning the facts about our Gurus and Sikhism just to save their skin.
THE PLAN WAS IN THE WORKS SINCE 2015
Craig Kapitan writes in his New Zealand Herald report.
In 2015, as controversial Auckland radio host Harnek Singh was set to debate a visiting American Sikhism scholar at a local temple, young bodybuilder Avtar Singh went to Bunnings Warehouse and bought an axe. “I’m not proud of that moment,” the now 30-year-old (accused) testified today, explaining that he had been “brainwashed” by an older, charismatic man who had taken him under his wing and convinced him the radio host needed to be “shut down”.
“To tell you the truth, [that axe] was either to hurt Harnek or someone who was around him at that time,” he sheepishly acknowledged to jurors in the High Court at Auckland, explaining that the immature, half-baked plan was quickly thwarted after a friend noticed the weapon in his pants and told him to leave it in the car.
About five years later, on a night in December 2020, the radio host became the victim of a more successful attack by a group of strangers who rammed his Ute near his Wattle Downs home and stabbed him dozens of times – fracturing his skull and nearly causing him to bleed to death.”
THERE WAS MORE TO THE PLAN OF MURDER
On the first day of the trial, prosecutor Radich pointed to Telco data retrieved by police which is alleged to show defendant Jobanpreet Singh texting a woman on the morning after the attack. Craig Kapitan writes:
“He (Harnek Singh) got stabbed with knives all across his neck. We never thought that he will still be safe,” Jobanpreet Singh is alleged to have written, according to a translation of one of the messages. He went on to express doubt the radio host would ultimately survive and revealed a plan to burn down his house during his funeral, prosecutors said.”
While the murdered victim was to have been cremated, and his family, relatives and friends attend the funeral, these people with the “courage, valour and mettle to stand up for the Gurus and religion and protecting the dignity of our Gurus and the religion” had criminal plans to go to their victim’s house to burn it down.
Had this plan to burn down the victim’s house come to fruition, one can only wonder as to how the “courage and heroism” of these murderous thugs “to protect the sanctity of our Guru and Sikhism” would have been celebrated across the (un-Sikh) world of hooligans. And as to what sort of claims and warnings would have flooded the social media accounts of the derawadi outfits that act as feeder groups of such hooliganism. One can only wonder.
Gurbinder Singh, left, and Sukhpreet Singh are two of the five men on trial in the High Court at Auckland in relation to the alleged attempted murder of radio host Harnek Singh. Photo: Jason Oxenham. Courtesy of The New Zealand Herald.
Jagraj Singh is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of aiding or encouraging the attempted murder of radio host Harnek Singh. Photo: Jason Oxenham. Courtesy of The New Zealand Herald.
Jobanpreet Singh is on trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham. Courtesy of The New Zealand Herald.
Sikh thinker, writer and parcharak Karminder Singh Dhillon, PhD (Boston), is a retired Malaysian civil servant. He is the joint-editor of The Sikh Bulletin and author of The Hijacking of Sikhi. This article appeared as the editorial in the The Sikh Bulletin – 2023 Issue 4 (October-December 2023). Click here to retrieve archived copies of the bulletin. The author can be contacted at dhillon99@gmail.com.
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