Advertisement

Generally law abiding and on the right side of the fence, the Indian community of Atlanta is both shocked and confused over the cauldron of treachery that has spun around an Indian immigrant, Chiman Rai, and his alleged involvement in the murder of his daughter-in-law, Sparkle Reid Rai.

Local newspapers and other media machinery have been abuzz with the dismal chronicle of the Mathematics-professor-turned-hotelier's complicity in a crime most heinous for reasons as senseless as they are inhumane.

Accused of contriving to get his African-American daughter-in-law, aforementioned Sparkle Rai killed because he did not approve of his son Rajeev's marriage to her, Chiman Rai's photograph is plastered all over media vehicles as the personification of cruel insanity and racial slurring.

An Indian immigrant, 67-year-old Rai has been charged with hiring a hit-man to kill his black daughter-in-law, also his erstwhile employee. The crime was committed four years ago when 22-year-old Sparkle was stabbed to death shortly after her wedding at her apartment in Union City.

Reportedly, she was living there with her husband, Ricky aka Rajeev Rai and seven-month-old daughter. Her body was discovered by her husband when he returned from work. Their daughter, Analla, unharmed, was in the house; a fact that by itself can rouse the most apathetic conscience.

Sparkle, it is rumored, was led to believe by her husband that her in-laws were dead. In an aside, her husband, Rai junior is married now to an Indian woman and has not been available for comments to the media.

The case has come to light today because of a woman convicted on a drug charge owning up to being a witness in the case. The Prosecution's case suggests that the Sparkle's killer had been offered $10,000 by Rai. Sparkle was allegedly killed by an ex-con, Cleveland Clark, now serving term in an unrelated crime at a Mississippi prison, at the behest of the enraged father-in-law. 

Meanwhile, Chiman Rai who is in the Fulton County Jail at present is being seen as an orthodox Indian who considered it a taboo for his son to wed outside his community, especially a black girl. His defense, however, reportedly is pleading innocence. Their argument is endorsed by some of his associates and friends who are said to believe him. Several people including his former acquaintances (he taught at Alcorn State University, a historically black college) reportedly find it difficult to accept that Rai could be behind a racial crime. He is said to have been a good teacher with no racial bias whatsoever.

Worse than the gruesome facts of the case itself are the hues of racial defilement that mar the perception of a certain segment of the Indian immigration group now. Of course, this kind of an episode reflects poorly on a generally well-loved and admired Diaspora community, but more importantly it pre-empts preconceived notions regarding the community, not all of which will now be favourable.

Equally, today an aggrieved group of Indian-Americans are watching from behind the lines, the unfolding of this melodramatic saga with unreserved sympathy for the blameless Sparkle and are aggressively rooting for requisite punishment to be doled out to those responsible for the reprehensible murder.

In the ambit, If Chiman Rai is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt and convicted by the court of Law; most certainly he will incur the wrath of the Indian-American entity. This incidentally, is not his first brush with the Law; he was sentenced to five years of probation for trafficking in food stamps earlier. It is being reported numerously that Chiman Rai could even face the death penalty if he is convicted of this crime.

As of now, each day brings to light facts and figures that are more indicative than revealing. Till the verdict is out and the final blow dealt, one can only hope that justice gets served swiftly and leads to a lesson well learnt.

For, at the circumference of the case is an equally pertinent crime that most definitely has been committed; the apathy and grisly insensitivity of Rajeev Rai, the husband who has disowned his (now) 7-year-old daughter, re-married in deceit (his second wife or her family were not aware of his past) and will still escape unharmed any which way the dice rolls.