A Dallas County man has been sentenced to 26 months in prison for committing a federal hate crime and making violent interstate threats against individuals based on their religion, including employees of a Sikh nonprofit organization in New Jersey.

Bhushan Athale, 49, of Dallas, Texas, had previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel in Camden federal court. He was charged with interfering with federally protected activities through the threatened use of a dangerous weapon and transmitting an interstate threat to injure another person.

Court documents and statements revealed that on September 17, 2022, Athale called the main number of an organization advocating for the civil rights of Sikh individuals in the United States. He left numerous messages over several hou

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