No Criminal Charges in NJ India Day Parade Bulldozer Incident

HI INDIA NEWS DESK
EDISON ,NJ- An investigation into a bulldozer that appeared at the annual India Day Parade in Edison in August has determined there is not enough evidence to support a bias intimidation charge, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office announced.

The incident was “properly reported and classified as a bias incident,” but the investigation did not reach the threshold for criminal charges, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department said. The bulldozer was adorned with signs and slogans expressing support for the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath. Both politicians are members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in India, which has deployed bulldozers as weapons of intimidation and destruction against Muslim homes.

The New Jersey Council on American-Islamic Relations thanked the prosecutor’s office for investigating the incident during the Aug. 14 parade and welcomed their decision to classify it as a “bias incident,” in a statement on Friday.

The Edison Police Department received numerous reports concerning the bulldozer float. “The complainants reported that the float was an offensive and Islamophobic endorsement of the divisive practice of using heavy machinery to demolish homes of alleged criminals, protestors, and rioters in India. This brand of ‘bulldozer politics’ has been criticized as disproportionately targeting religious-minority communities in India,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.