US District Judge Edward S. Kiel sentenced Bhushan Athale, 49, on June 3 for threatening to injure and kill employees of a New York-based Sikh nonprofit that advocates for the civil rights of Sikhs across the US and has branches in other states.
A criminal investigation revealed Athale has a long history of making religion-based comments and threats, including a series of hateful messages to a Muslim.
“The Department of Justice has no tolerance for hate-fueled threats of violence in our country.”
The case underscores a growing concern among civil rights advocates about the rising tide of anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim bigotry in the US—and the need for robust legal responses when such animus spills into violent threats. Prosecutors and community leaders say the conviction sends a strong message: Hate-fueled harassment will not go unpunished.
The Department of Justice praised the collaborative efforts of its Civil Rights Division and the FBI, with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon emphasizing that “the Department of Justice has no tolerance for hate-fueled threats of violence in our country.”
Athale, a naturalized American citizen originally from India and a self-identified Hindu, pleaded guilty earlier this year in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, to two felony counts: interfering with federally protected activities through the threatened use of a dangerous weapon and transmitting an interstate threat to injure another person.
According to the FBI and court filings, Athale targeted a New Jersey branch of the Sikh nonprofit, referred to in federal documents as “Organization 1.” The hostile campaign began in September 2022, when Athale left seven voice mails for a Sikh employee—identified as “Individual 1”—using a mix of Hindi and English languages to issue profane, hate-laced threats of violence.
After receiving the voice mails, Individual 1 alerted her colleagues, writing: “Team, sharing the very filthy and threatening message he left on my voice mail. Essentially saying that if we (Sikhs) want Khalistan that he will scalp us and kill us—it is very, very profane.”
Khalistan, or “Land of the Pure,” refers to a Sikh separatist movement that advocates for an independent Sikh homeland in the Punjab, a vast region located in present-day India and Pakistan, where the religion, known as Sikhi or Sikhism, was born more than half a millennium ago. Sikhism has nearly 30 million followers worldwide, making it the fifth-largest faith in the world, although Sikhs comprise just 2 percent of Hindu-majority India’s 1.4 billion people.
In his messages, Athale said he would forcibly shave Sikh employees’ heads—an act deeply offensive to practicing Sikhs, who are religiously mandated to keep their hair uncut—and “make” them smoke tobacco, another violation of Sikh tenets. In one voice mail, Athale threatened to “catch each and every f—king Sikh” and donate their shorn hair to a famous Hindu temple in India or sell it in America.
In another voice mail, Athale chillingly promised to “show [them] the heaven.”
The threats continued into 2024. Then, in March of this year, Athale again contacted the nonprofit’s New Jersey office, leaving more voice mails expressing renewed hatred toward Sikhs and Muslims alike. According to the Justice Department, he also used a professional networking site to harass a former Muslim colleague, calling him a terrorist and threatening to “figure out” how to kill the man’s entire family.
An investigation by the FBI’s Philadelphia field office uncovered a pattern of religious hatred spanning several years. In addition to the voice mails and online threats, Athale had admitted in an interview with law enforcement that he “f—king hated Muslims” and blamed them for having “ruined” India.
According to court records, Athale’s messages demonstrated a disturbing fluency with the tenets and symbolism of Sikhism—referencing key articles of the faith, such as the religious significance of unshorn hair—which he exploited to craft threats intended to terrorize.
In sentencing Athale, Judge Kiel ordered three years of supervised release following his prison term and prohibited him from contacting any of his victims.
Harbhajan Singh, leader of the Gurdwara Nishkam Seva in Irving, Texas, welcomed the visibility the case brings to the harassment of Sikhs. “That gives us statistics and tells us how many people are doing that,” he said, adding: “We should not hate any person from this community or any other community.”
In a country built on pluralism and religious freedom, hate speech backed by threats of violence is not protected expression—it is a crime. The sentencing of Bhushan Athale is a reminder that, in the face of prejudice, law enforcement and the justice system must stand as guardians of civil rights.
“We welcome the sentencing of this individual and thank law enforcement authorities for taking action before his violent threats turned to action,” said Aya Elamroussi, communications manager of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim bigotry have inspired acts of violence before and must be taken seriously by law enforcement authorities.”
Still, deterrence alone is not enough. Historically, the long-term antidote to hate has been solidarity—across communities, across faiths and particularly across the artificial lines drawn by those who fear difference.
