Man charged for vandalising Gurdwara in US

Los Angeles, Jan 13: A 21-year-old man has been charged for vandalising a Gurdwara with hateful anti-ISIS graffiti in a suburb here in December and faces maximum sentence of three years if found guilty.

Brodie Durazo has been charged with one felony count of vandalism of a religious property and two misdemeanor counts each of vandalism under USD 400, according to the Orange County district attorney's office, Los Angeles Times reported today.

Gurdwara Singh Sabha's board members and community members said in the early hours of December 6, the Gurdwara in Buena Park was vandalised with hateful anti-ISIS graffiti along with a community member's truck in the parking lot, according to the Sikh Coalition.

The vandalism prompted an increase in police patrols near the religious center and sparked fear among members of the Sikh community.

Durazo is accused of spray-painting graffiti throughout a trailer park where he lives in Orangethorpe Avenue on December 6 and of then going into the property of the Gurdwara Singh Sabha Temple and spray-painting graffiti on a dividing wall between the trailer park and the temple, the report said.

Durazo is scheduled to be indicted on February 8. If convicted, prosecutors said, he could face a maximum sentence of three years in state prison.

"We believe that the Gurdwara Singh Sabha was vandalised because it is a Sikh house of worship," the coalition's attorney Gurjot Kaur said in a statement at the time.

"We call on local and federal agencies to investigate this vandalism as a hate crime and request increased law enforcement security at the Gurdwara immediately," Kaur said.

This act of vandalism, in the aftermath of the San Bernardino tragedy, was just the latest in a line of hate crimes against Sikhs in America, Sikh Coalition said in a statement.

PTI