Racist Slurs Painted on Indian Restaurant in Virginia

One more day, and another case of vandalism at an Indian restaurant in the USA. Tony Sappal has been the owner of Indian K’ Raja restaurant near Tuckermuck Drive and West Broad Street in Henrico, for 27 years.

The past weekend was the restaurant’s 27th anniversary. On the day, Sappal drove down to his restaurant only to see that it was vandalized and the entire space was filled with derogatory words and racist slurs.

He noticed a big graffiti sign with a hateful message – Do* He**, which left him in shock and obviously disturbed. A profane word along with other racist slurs was spray painted on the side and back of the restaurant. The front door and glass windows too were spray painted in dark red. Incidentally, whoever did it also tore down the wire to the outside speakers.

Even the dumpster and fencing were spray painted too causing immense distress to the owner. Meanwhile, Henrico County’s chief of police has made it clear that any acts of intimidation or hatred will not be tolerated in the community and will be charged accordingly.

The owner Sappal claimed that in 27 years of business no one displayed this kind of anger and added that his restaurant had supplied free lunches for students when schools were shut down during the pandemic. The local community leaders said India K’ Raja is one of the best places to get Indian food in Central Virginia.

If one looks for statistics, Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by a whopping 339% last year as compared to the previous year. Only last month, US Indians held a peaceful protest at Times Square against the spurt in hate crimes.