Shillong, October 10: A 44-year-old Sikh man, Parmvir Singh Gosal, has admitted guilt in connection with a sword attack that occurred during California’s Yuba City’s annual Sikh Parade in 2018.
As per IANS, Gosal, a resident of Tracy city, pleaded guilty last week to charges of attempted murder and mayhem related to the incident that took place on November 4, 2018, known as Nagar Kirtan, as reported by the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office.
During the attack, the victim sustained 23 stitches to his face and suffered an orbital fracture below his left eye after Gosal and three other individuals assaulted him with swords and brass knuckles, as detailed by The Sacramento Bee newspaper.
Additionally, Gosal confessed to charges of second-degree robbery, assault resulting in bodily injury, and dissuading a key witness to the sword incident. On June 8, 2019, Gosal and his group attacked the witness in Lathrop city, California, rendering him unconscious.
Parmvir Singh Gosal is set to be sentenced on January 29 and could face a maximum prison term of 17 years and eight months, according to the Attorney’s Office.
Manpreet Singh, another individual arrested in connection with the Yuba City incident, entered a no contest plea to attempted murder in August and was subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison, as reported by The Bee.
The annual Sikh Parade festival in Yuba City, introduced in the 1980s by well-known Punjabi-American peach farmer Didar Singh Bains, also known as the “Peach King,” takes place on the first Sunday of November. It attracts nearly 100,000 South Asians from the US, Canada, England, and India each year.