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.”
S
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.
Hate crimes are often prosecuted by federal officials.
— IANS
3 Held for Killing of South Carolina Store Owner
Harnish Patel was shot dead outside his home in Lancaster on March 2
T
Abhishek
Gattani to be
monitored, do
community
service
Organizers
decry plea
agreement
court struck
with husband