Friday, July 5, 2024
ADVT 
International

Mixed-Faith Wedding Sparked Angry Protest At Sikh Temple, Court hears

IANS, 02 Feb, 2018 04:12 PM
    An official at a Sikh temple was assaulted by having his tie grabbed during a mass protest against a mixed-faith wedding ceremony, a court has heard.
     
     
    A trial at Birmingham Crown Court was told demonstrators shouted vile insults in Punjabi after forcing open the doors of the gurdwara in Leamington in September 2016.
     
     
    Gursharan Singh, 34, and Kulvinder Bir Singh, 38, both deny religiously aggravated offences.
     
     
    Trial rosecutor Sophie Murray said: “The Crown case is that these two men attended the gurdwara temple as part of a group with the sole intention of disrupting an inter-faith marriage with which they disagreed.”
     
     
    Prosecutors allege Gursharan Singh, of no fixed address, assaulted temple committee member Bhopinder Singh Aujla. A charge he denies.
     
    Giving evidence from behind a screen, Aujla described how another official received a call from a security guard warning him men were "rushing" the gates ahead of a wedding service on 11 September 2016.
     
     
     
     
    He told the court: "Once I'd locked the door, I went towards the dining room just to alert my colleagues that there were people outside banging the doors.
     
     
    "I just started moving out of the way, feeling frightened, and the next thing you know one of them tried to grab me between the legs.
     
     
    "Another one of his colleagues grabbed me quite tightly by my tie and I pushed his hand away."
     
     
    Kulvinder Bir Singh, 38, of Tilehurst Drive, Coventry, denies damaging signs relating to the ceremony at the temple.
     
     
    Leamington gurdwara is one of a small number of Sikh temples in Britain which stages inter-faith weddings and had experienced problems with protesters in the past.
     
     
    The trial continues.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Investment Limits For US 'Golden Visa' Likely To Be Hiked

    Investment Limits For US 'Golden Visa' Likely To Be Hiked
      The US Congress last week extended the deadline for the EB5 visa to February 8 after the latest deadline expired on January 19.

    Investment Limits For US 'Golden Visa' Likely To Be Hiked

    Sikh Soldiers To Get New War Memorial In London

    Sikh Soldiers To Get New War Memorial In London
    The campaign for a new Sikh war memorial was led by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Britain's first turbaned Sikh MP, who now has the support of the UK's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to help set up a Working Group to find a suitable location.

    Sikh Soldiers To Get New War Memorial In London

    Gangster Rajat Malhotra AKA Karan Masti Flees From Police Custody In Punjab

    Gangster Rajat Malhotra AKA Karan Masti Flees From Police Custody In Punjab
    Just a couple of days after the Punjab Police got a pat for killing two notorious gangsters, the force had to face embarrassment on Monday when a gangster escaped from its custody from the court complex in Amritsar.

    Gangster Rajat Malhotra AKA Karan Masti Flees From Police Custody In Punjab

    Jaitu DSP Baljinder Singh Sandhu Dies Of Gunshot Wound As He Mediates Between Cops, Students

    Jaitu DSP Baljinder Singh Sandhu Dies Of Gunshot Wound As He Mediates Between Cops, Students
    A Punjab Police officer was killed on Monday when he went to an institutional campus in Jaitu town in Punjab's Faridkot district to resolve an issue between students and the local police.

    Jaitu DSP Baljinder Singh Sandhu Dies Of Gunshot Wound As He Mediates Between Cops, Students

    Two Indian-Americans Charged With Deceptive Trading Practices

    Two Indian-Americans Charged With Deceptive Trading Practices
    Jitesh Thakkar, 41, of Naperville, Illinois, has been charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and spoofing offences, along with six others.

    Two Indian-Americans Charged With Deceptive Trading Practices

    Indian-Americans Launch Campaign To Remove Green Card Backlog

    Eminent Indian Americans have launched a nationwide campaign in the US to create awareness about massive backlog for Green Card which they say is impacting some 300,000 high-skilled Indian applicants.

    Indian-Americans Launch Campaign To Remove Green Card Backlog