Assault Of Sikh Taxi Driver Being Investigated As Possible Hate Crime, Police Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Cops are investigating the robbery and assault of a Sikh taxi driver as a possible hate crime, an NYPD spokesman told Patch. Harkirat Singh, 25, was punched in the arm and had the turban ripped from his head around 5 a.m. Sunday after picking up four passengers in Midtown and dropping them off in the Bronx, police said.

Since the assault, Singh has been afraid to work night shifts in his cab, he told the Daily News.

"I'm so afraid. I don't want to work," Singh told the Daily News. "It's an insult on my religion, also,” he said. "An insult of my faith. It's horrible."

When Singh dropped his passengers off at East 165th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx they became angry with him, and told him that he took them to the wrong location, police told Patch. Passengers in the back seat became unruly and started hitting on the cab partition, police said. Singh called the cops, prompting the passenger in the front seat to pay the fare, but the argument escalated, police said.

One of the passengers, who was intoxicated, got physical with Singh, punching him in the arm and tearing the turban from his head, police told Patch. The passengers then shouted derogatory comments at Singh and fled the scene, police told Patch.

"They said, ‘Ali Baba, f--k you,'" Singh told the Daily News.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio has since condemned the attack on Singh.

"Harkirat Singh — You are welcome here. What happened to you was wrong. You did the right thing by calling the NYPD," de Blasio said on Twitter.

The Sikh Coalition, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering Sikh communities and other religious minority groups, called on the NYPD to treat Singh's attack as a hate crime.

"The Sikh Coalition urges the NYPD to investigate this attack as a hate crime and hold the perpetrators accountable," Sikh Coalition Interim Managing Director of Programs Rajdeep Singh Jolly said in a statement. "Over the long term, we also call on the New York City Administration to make bias prevention a top priority."

"It is one thing for law enforcement to respond to hate crimes after the fact, but we collectively need to start thinking about ways to prevent hate crimes from occurring in the first place."

Police told Patch that only one of the four passengers, a man in his 20s, is a suspect. The investigation into the robbery is ongoing and nobody has been taken into custody, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

Photo by Patch