Summary:
AMRITSAR : An Indian American serving jail term may face capital punishment after the Madera county district attorney slapped additional special charges against him. "We cannot deny that drug is the root cause of many of these killing among the Punjabis in North America which brings shame to the community. Amritraj Singh Athwal is presently in jail along with his cousin Savirant Singh Athwal, 24, for allegedly killing a 21-year-old Indian student during an armed robbery at a convenience store in California on November 13.Sukhi Chahal, chairman of the Punjab Foundation told TOI on Wednesday that a press release issued by David Linn, Madera district attorney, reads "The effect of these additional special allegations increases the potential penalties for Athwal to life, without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty Dharampreet Singh Jassar was the only son of the Punjabi parents and was studying accounting and criminal justice at Fresno State University.He worked in the store where four men including Amritraj Athwal committed the robbery and had stolen cash and cigarettes.Sukhi said that it was unfortunate that both the victim and alleged accused belong to the Punjabi community. It is the responsibility of the community leaders to accept the hard reality and work together to find the solution of these problems" he said adding that a .22-caliber assault pistol that had been reported stolen and drugs were found inside one of the Punjabi killer suspects truck.He informed that with timely intervention of external affairs ministry the victims parents got the US visa.In recent past, an American Sikh couple was arrested from US-Canada border for allegedly smuggling cocaine.Notably, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had also expressed concern about safety of Sikhs living in the US and had tweeted the same following which he was assured by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who had directed Indian ambassador to US Navtej Sarna to update Amarinder in this regard..