Sikh student acquitted of charges for possessing "Kirpan"

New York, Dec 6 (UNI) A Sikh student of Wayne State University, charged with violation of the local Knife Ordinance Code for keeping a"Kirpan", was acquitted following the efforts of community organisation United Sikhs and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"The City of Detroit has acted in a reasonable manner by dropping this case in realising that Sikh Americans should not be denied their constitutional right to freely practice their religion," said Harpreet Singh, legal director of United Sikhs, over the weekend in a statement.

"We will continue to work in stages with the Wayne State University, the City of Detroit, the Wayne County and the State of Michigan, to establish a best practice for dealing with Sikhs wearing a Kirpan," he said.

The Sikh community organisation submitted a memorandum to the prosecution and the judge pointing out the right to wear a kirpan.

"The difficulty in this case was overcoming the tendency of prosecutors and police to view possession of the Kirpan as a criminal offence.

I think the key to success for this issue is to educate the courts, prosecutors, police officers and community leaders about the Sikh articles of faith," attorney Mike Gibbs said.

The 23-year-old student was arrested on August 24 after two police officers had asked him to either remove his Kirpan or face arrest.

Sukhpreet explained to the officers that the Kirpan was a mandatory article of the Sikh faith and he could not remove it.

Police arrested Sukhpreet for violating the local Knife Ordinance Code.

He was released on bail later after seizing his Kirpan.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed in a federal court in New York to seek religious freedom of a Sikh prisoner, who has been on a liquid diet since June to protest the alleged abuses of his religious rights.

The lawsuit filed in the federal District Court for the Southern District of New York stemmed from the violation of religious rights of Navdeep Singh, a devout Amritdhari Sikh, who began in January serving a five-year sentence in Fishkill Correctional Facility in New York.

It alleged that officials at the facility repeatedly tormented Navdeep desecrating Sikh religious scriptures.

Navdeep, according to an official from the community organisation United Sikhs, was put in a solitary confinement for refusing to shave his beard and his religious articles were confiscated.