Sikh shop clerk stabbed to death in US for refusing to sell cigarettes

New York : A Sikh shop clerk in United States was stabbed to death for refusing to sell cigarettes. The incident was reported from a grocery store in California. The victim has been identified as Jagjeet Singh, 32-year-old man from Indian origin.
Jagjeet was working as a clerk in Hatch Food and Gas convenience store in California’s Modesto. He arrived in United States nearly 18 months ago from Punjab’s Kapurthala village. He was staying in the same town along with his sister and brother in-law.
His death was reported on Sunday, by FOX40. Another clerk at the store Sukhwinder Singh, describing the events that led to the fatal encounter, said the outburst began apparently over being asked for an ID and Jagjeet had refused to sell cigarettes to the unidentified person as he did not show any proper ID.
The man then reportedly left the store in a hurry, mouthing racist abuses and warning Jagjeet of dire consequences. The entire sequence was captured by a CCTV camera installed in the store premises. The customer then returned angry, 30 minutes later, and took Jagjeet’s life when he was about to close the store, Singh said.
Jagjeet was soon rushed to the hospital where he struggled for his life for nine hours before finally succumbing to his injuries, the report said. Yesterday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Indian ambassador in the US Navtej S Sarna in the wake reports of killing of a Sikh man in a suspected hate crime in that country.