Robbery/hate crime called a hoax Friday, July 11, 2003
By AMY
KLEIN
STAFF WRITER
It sounded like a horrible hate crime.
Police officers recounted the details in somber voices: During a brash
drugstore robbery, a Sikh employee's arm was slashed, his turban removed, and
his hair chopped off. Slurs were used, police said.
Within a day, the story of the North Arlington holdup was posted on Sikh
message boards, and outraged community leaders were notifying Washington
legislators while offering counseling to the 21-year-old victim.
Then the story unraveled.
Police now say the June 30 robbery was a hoax, a carefully staged ruse to
steal $5,600 from the cash register. And the advocates who rushed to the store
manager's defense say they feel duped.
Harminder Singh originally told police that two black men armed with a
knife and a gun had burst into the Schuyler Avenue CVS store, led him to the
rear, and cut off his hair before fleeing with the cash. Sikhs are forbidden
by their religion to cut their hair, believing it is a gift from God.
Singh's descriptions of the robbers were vivid: The gunman was 5-foot-5
with cornrows, a dark sleeveless shirt, and loose khaki pants. The second
robber wore a black mask and a T-shirt with the words "I love you" emblazoned
in red across the front. A blond-haired white man stood watch outside.
But Singh himself had actually cut the power to the store, snipped his own
hair, and slashed his own hand, North Arlington police Capt. Louis Ghione said
Thursday. The $5,600 was found under the back seat of his car, Ghione
said.
Singh was charged with theft and filing a false police report. He was
released on his own recognizance pending a court hearing. A date had not been
set.
Singh's mother, who answered the phone at the family's Teaneck home, would
not comment. His lawyer said Singh comes from a very strict and religious
family.
"I'm sure that the entire story will come out in due time," said lawyer
Eddie Raynord Hadden.
Police turned suspicious when the store surveillance tape contradicted
Singh's account, Ghione said.
For instance, he said, Singh told police he had wheeled in stray carts from
the parking lot as he locked up the store, but that is not seen on the
videotape. He also told police that the robbers approached him as he was
locking the door, but no one else appears on the videotape, Ghione said.
Detectives confronted Singh, and he offered to take a polygraph test. He
confessed just before it was administered, said Capt. Gary Fanning.
"The way he cut his hair was not even consistent with his story," Fanning
said. "He said it was cut with a knife, but it was cut like in a salon."
News of the hoax rocked national groups that had flocked to Singh's aid.
Rajwant Singh, national chairman of the Washington-based Sikh Council on
Religion and Education, said he was humiliated and angered.
"People are just outraged. We feel that this is the lowest anybody can go
to exploit a situation for their own personal benefit," Rajwant Singh
said.
The council was one of several national organizations to contact police
last week, wanting to offer condolences to the family and counseling for the
victim. Word of the reported hate crime was posted on about a dozen Sikh
e-groups, alerting about 10,000 people to the incident, Rajwant Singh said.
He even put in a call to a senator who is drafting hate-crime legislation,
to fill him in on the details of the incident. Since 9/11, he said, Sikhs have
been working to educate Americans about the community, whose estimated 25
million worldwide members follow a religion established more than five
centuries ago in northern India.
