A New Hyde Park woman was arrested Wednesday in connection with the theft of a holy book from the Gurdwara Sikh Center in Queens that sparked the outrage of the religious community.
The Nassau Police Department said Prabhleen Kaur, 37, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny for stealing a Guru Sahib.
The arrest took place hours after hundreds of Sikh community members converged in front of Kaur’s home at 42 Schumacher Drive in New Hyde Park.
Kaur, who is also Sikh, allegedly stole the book about seven weeks ago.
“She went to the temple and said she wanted to do a prayer at her house, and typically in our faith when you go to the gurdwara and make arrangements, they bring the holy text into the household in a certain traditional way,” said Japneet Singh, one of the organizers of last Wednesday’s rally. “And once the prayer was completed, the head priest went back to collect the holy text and she said ‘I’m not going to give it’. She refused.”
Singh said this was a very big sign of disrespect.
He also said it’s embarrassing for the temple when the holy text is not in the holy shrine, so the story was kept under wraps until people found Kaur’s home address and tried to contact her.
“She’s like, ‘I’m not going to give it to you,’ and she tried threatening them,” Singh said.
“Officers responded to her residence to place her under arrest, but the defendant refused to open the door,” the Nassau County Police Department crime report stated.
After seeing that she was not backing down, the local Sikh community started gathering in front of her home 24 hours a day, trying to make every effort to get in touch with her.
Singh said they would tell her, “We’re not going to harm you. We’re not going to do anything. We just want to take our Guru Sahib back to our house of worship.”
Three days later, after no search or arrest warrants had been issued, Singh organized a rally outside Kaur’s home.
He said some key community members knew about the situation, but the greater local Sikh community did not. Singh then posted a flyer about this rally on social media and said it “spread like wildfire.”
“I truly believe that the rally is what pressured Nassau County to really expedite the arrest warrant,” Singh said.
The rally featured hundreds of Sikh community members, along with U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (Democrat-district 3), state Assembly Member Michaelle Solages (Democrat-district 22) and Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages (Democrat-district 3). Also, there were Nassau County police officers on duty surrounding the street.
Singh said the judge signed off on the arrest warrant at around 9 p.m. last Wednesday. He said the county’s Police Department entered the house by force and arrested her that night.
“The way they swatted her, I would think they were about to go get a terrorist,” Singh said. “They had helicopters, SWAT teams, at least 10 NCPD members. It was very intense.”
Singh said the Police Department worked very closely with the community to ensure that the holy text was not disrespected.
“Usually, when searches like this happen, they don’t let anyone go inside the home with them, but they knew what this meant to us and the magnitude of the situation, so they allowed us to go in the home,” Singh said.
For Sikhs to go near their holy text, they must wash their hands, and at least five people must be present. The police allowed five Sikh community members to go inside the home, and they retrieved the holy text.
“Recently, there has been significant activity near my home in New Hyde Park related to the return of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh holy book, to its temple in Queens,” Christine Liu, Town of North Hempstead council member, said on Facebook.
“I want to express my gratitude to the Nassau County Police Department Third Precinct for their efforts in securing the holy book, making the necessary arrests and ensuring the safety of our community throughout this difficult situation. I also appreciate my neighbors’ remarkable patience and understanding during the investigation. I am truly thankful for the peaceful resolution of this troubling situation.”
Singh said he feels a range of emotions, from relief that this is over to anxiety that it was easy to steal this scripture in the first place. He said the biggest win for the community was how everyone came together and displayed the essence of chardi kala, which means high spirit.
“No matter how hard things were, despite all adversity, as much as it was hurting us, everyone came together and we even started meditating and we started a little prayer,” Singh said. “That’s the essence of what a Sikh is.”
Singh said the community is now in a “protective mode. ” They will work to ensure that this does not happen again.