India Abroad - June 30, 2017

INDIA ABROAD June 30, 2017 27 INDIAN-AMERICAN AFFAIRS
INDIAABROAD.COM

By Ritu Jha

Silicon Valley execu-
tive Abhishek Gattani,
sentenced for the
domestic abuse of his
wife, Neha Rastogi,
California. He was scheduled to
be released on June 26.

The Cuberon CEO, 38, was given a one-month jail term — which was reduced to 15 days for good behavior — in a plea deal that drew community protest.

Santa Clara County Judge Allison M. Danner had listened to audio recordings Rastogi made of her husband’s abusive behavior but said she found only one that met the criteria for criminal behavior.

At the sentencing, however, she imposed extra requirements for him: He will be cleaning and picking up highway trash for two and a half months, four days a week. He is also forbidden to drink alcohol and has been ordered to stay away from Rastogi for the next 10 years and carry an electronic monitoring device for six months. The device will test his blood-alcohol content via facial recognition and also employ a breath-alcohol test.

“I am glad she [Danner] was able to rise above all the pressure,” said Gattani’s attorney, Michael Paez.

He said his client was “very
relieved to have this [case]
behind him.” He said the judge’s
decision was “stressful” and
Gattani is looking forward to
“picking up the pieces of his life
and moving forward.”
He called Danner’s actions “a
good decision,” adding that he
believed Rastogi used the media
to garner extra attention for
what he said were unsupported
claims.

“My client took responsibility for his mistake the one that he made and that he accepted the responsibility but that doesn’t mean he is accepting all other crazy accusation that was not supported by any evidence,” he said.

He said the couple’s case for separation is now pending in Family Court.

Rastogi’s attorney, Michael
Pascoe, said the sentence was
disappointing. Rastogi, a princi-
pal product manager of mobile
products at Walmart Lab, not
pleased with the plea deal deci-
sion and for the second time
since the case began, read an
emotional two-
page statement in
the courtroom.

“Domestic violence is truly terrorism and should be termed such,” the statement said. She recounted being abused for the past

10 years.

Meanwhile,
Papiha Nandy,
radio and TV host
and community
activist, who protested in front
of the court on June 15, told
India Abroad, “We [of the]
Indian-American community
don’t want to talk about it.

“I urge women to be zero-tol-erant towards domestic violence,” said Nandy.

“Victims should not fear about their visa issue or job or shelter, support system are there, but they have to stop these abusers,” she said.

Stanford University law professor and sociologist, Michele Landis Dauber, showed up at court to support Rastogi. She said that in general domestic violence is not taken seriously.

“It’s a very serious case and her
perpetrator is a privileged and
CEO and upper-class person.

And the women are often treat-
ed really poorly in the court sys-
tem,” she said. “However, it’s
rare for batters to spend any
time in jail.”
She said people need to send
a message to elected officials
that “if you are not taking
domestic violence seriously
whether it’s a sexual assault or
domestic abuse voters are going
to hold you accountable and
replace you with someone who
will take it seriously.” Dauber
said domestic violence is treated
less seriously than drug crime,
shoplifting, graffiti and even
drunk driving.

“We have laws and what he did was against the law. We have enough laws but we need public officials to enforce it in a more appropriate way. He could have served years in jail for his crime, but he got just 13 days,” said Dauber.

Vinita Gupta, the founder and
chairman of Digital Link Corp.,
and a member of the board of
trustees at Maitri, a Bay Area
nonprofit which supports
domestic violence victims in the
South Asian community, said in
a statement to India Abroad,
“The outcome has had the
desired effect. Although she did
not get everything that she
wanted. But social shame is the
best punishment. He has no
family, no job, and friends and
associates are shunning him. It
also prevents others from behav-
ing in a predatory way.
“I think that the judge not
ordering him to be deported is a
big plus, as moving the case to
India could have meant deferred
hearing for not just months but
years. He might be seen picking
up trash on the roadside, which
could not do him any good
either. As much as I wish he got
a longer jail sentence, I respect
the justice system here.”
A

Husband Begins Serving Time in Abuse Case
Silicon Valley CEO scheduled for June 26 release

By Ritu Jha

ocial justice advocates in
New York City, Chicago
and Palo Alto, California
rallied in support of domestic
violence survivor, Neha
Rastogi, the California woman
who suffered abuse by her hus-
band for more than a decade.

Silicon Valley executive Abhishek Gattani, who was originally charged with felony domestic violence was given a plea deal under a lesser charge.

The June 15 multi-city rally was organized by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, a nonprofit advancing social justice and human rights.

“We wanted to honor
Neha’s courage to speak her
truth, tell her story publicly,
Ashley Moy-Wooten, the
group’s national field director.

She said the organization was not pleased with the plea deal.

“We are deeply devastated with Judge Allison M.

Danner’s plea
deal ruling,” she
said. “Despite
much outrage
and peaceful
resistance from
the Asian
American and
Pacific Islander
community, the Santa Clara
Superior Court judge, Judge
Danner failed Rastogi by reaf-
firming a plea deal that com-
pletely disregards Neha’s trau-
ma and allows her abuser
Gattani to serve only 13 days in
jail for more than a decade of
violence.” She said the ruling
is an affront to
Neha’s civil
rights and the
effect of 10 years
of abuse she
experienced at
Gattani’s hands.
Nonetheless,
she said, “we
wanted to send a
strong message
that women and
all gender-based
violence sur-
vivors matter
and must be heard, not only
within the courts, but also
within their workplaces, faith
institutions, and local commu-
nities.”

Multi-city rally participants stand with survivor Neha Rastogi
Support for Domestic Abuse Victim

— NEW YORK
hree men who allegedly
wanted to “smash an
Indian” have been arrested
and charged in connection with
the murder of a South Carolina
grocery store owner.
Harnish Patel was shot dead
outside his home in Lancaster on
March 2. The incident, which
happened barely 10 days after
the killing of an Indian engineer
in Kansas, sent shockwaves
across the Indian-American com-
munity.

The men arrested earlier this month have so far been charged only with conspiracy to commit robbery and not directly with the killing of Patel, as the investigations proceed, The Herald, a local newspaper based in Rock Hill, S.C., reported June 21.

The newspaper said Jaquinton
Tradell Blair, LaJames Arteian
Ross and Richard Stewart “had
roles in the robbery and conspir-
acy” according to arrest warrants
released by police June 21.

“Although no one has yet been charged with the murder of Mr. Patel, our investigators continue to work this case hard. We are continuing to put information together and will not slow down until we are satisfied we have the whole story and have arrested the person or persons directly responsible for Mr.

Patel’s death,” TV station WSCO quoted Lancaster Sheriff Barry Faile as saying.

WSCO reported that Blair was arrested on June 6 and Stewart and Ross on June 8. But the arrests and the charges were officially made public on June

21. Earlier, officials had reported difficulties in getting witnesses to the crime or anyone with knowledge of it to reach out the authorities.

“The warrants cite the words
‘smash an Indian,’ as used by the
three people arrested. The
phrase is the first indication that
the crime could possibly have
been a hate crime,” the Herald
said:
But the newspaper reported
that Doug Barfield, the
spokesperson for the Lancaster
County Sheriff’s Office, refused
to discuss the motive for the
crime, and said he was not aware
of any hate crime investigation
by federal authorities.