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I Want My Kirpan Back: Gurcharan Singh Bhatia

R S Shankar

Calling the arrest of a Sikh priest in small Ohio town a case of cultural misunderstanding, many Indian Americans urged fellow Indians to write to the mayor of Mentor and its prosecutor to withdraw the case, and initiate a program for the police in cultural sensitivity.

"What happened in Cleveland is not just a Sikh issue, and I am not upset over it just because I am a Sikh," said Gurbir Singh, a New York attorney. "It is the refusal of officials to recognize the religious rights of immigrants that upsets me most."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which last year successfully fought for the rights of two Sikh school boys in California to carry the kirpan to school is expected to rally to the support of the priest, Gurbachan Singh Bhatia. In California, a compromise was reached allowing the students to carry blunted kirpans.

Seventy-year-old Bhatia, who has served as the Sikh priest of a gurdwara in Northeast Ohio for nearly two decades, was handcuffed and charged with carrying a concealed weapon when the police found a six-inch kirpan on him while investigating a minor traffic accident near the town of Mentor a few weeks ago.

The case against Bhatia starts on October 4, and if he is found guilty, he could be sentenced for six months and a $ 1,000 fine. Bhatia, who speaks limited English, says he clearly told the police he was carrying the kirpan for religious reasons. He says the confiscated kirpan has been with him for decades and he wants it back the soonest.

Bhatia says he was returning from a religious ceremony blessing the new home of a Sikh family in Mentor when he stopped at a light. He thought he had gone too far into the intersection but when he backed up, his car bumped the vehicle behind him. As Bhatia got out of his car to apologize to the driver of the other vehicle, the passenger noticed a bulge under Bhatia's shirt and brought it to the attention of a police officer who had stopped to check out the accident

Sikhs and fellow Asians are also upset with the defensive posture of the police. "They could say they made a mistake," says Deepan Kumar, a political science major. "But they are going by the text book, and ignoring commonsense."

The police are standing their ground.

"How can you describe for me the difference between a ceremonial knife and any knife?" Mentor police chief Richard Amiott asked, adding his officers acted properly in enforcing the law banning concealed weapons.

The knife was considered a weapon capable of causing death, and the arrest was justified, he added.

"As far as the Mentor police department and our officers, we are not familiar with any religious defense as it relates to carrying a concealed weapon, and that will be decided by the court," he told reporters.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out that in a similar case in Cincinnati an appeals court overturned a conviction of a Sikh for carrying a concealed weapon.

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