What led Dalal to the crazy act?
Former Rutgers student Aakash Dalal, has been found by a jury in Hackensack, New Jersey, guilty on terrorism charges in the firebombing of a synagogue.
Dalal, a former Lodi resident, was found guilty on 17 of 20 counts in attacks and vandalism against several synagogues and other Jewish institutions, which occurred between 2011 and 2012 in Rutherford, Paramus, Hackensack and Maywood, NorthJersey.com reported.
Dalal, now 24, will be sentenced on Dec. 21, NorthJersey.com reported.
Dalal was charged as the mastermind behind the attacks who instructed a childhood friend, Anthony Graziano, to carry them out. Graziano was found guilty in May.
Dalal had been held on $2.5 million bail and was charged with aggravated arson, conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, bias intimidation and two counts of criminal mischief.
Authorities accused Graziano of throwing Molotov cocktails into the Congregation Beth El temple in Rutherford while Rabbi Nosson Schuman and his family slept upstairs.
Dalal and Graziano were charged with spray-painting anti-Semitic messages on temples in Hackensack and Maywood in 2011. Their messages included a swastika and “Jews did 9/11.”
Their attacks first seemed to take a more violent turn, though, when authorities said they attempted to start a fire in 2012 at the Temple K’Hal Adith Jeshrun in Paramus.
Messages between Dalal and Graziano showed that Dalal was disappointed that the Paramus fire fizzled out and the two mocked law enforcement officials.
The Jewish Standard reported a mysterious message left as a comment on the Jewish Standard’s website pointed the finger towards Dalal as a co-conspirator and partner in some of the crimes.
In May, in a separate trial, Graziano was convicted of terrorism and other charges. In Dalal’s trial, prosecutors brought in text messages proving that he egged on Graziano, promising that he could be “fuhrer” someday. The two of them, the trial showed, gloated, as the Jewish community held solidarity evenings with the attacked synagogues.
The guilty verdict showed that Dalal’s attorney’s efforts to minimize his responsibility failed to convince the jury. And it showed that Dalal sought to incite fear in more than five people, as the state’s post-9/11 terrorism statute required, reported the Standard.
Dalal and Graziano face life in prison.
The Standard noted: ‘Our one disappointment in the trial is this: While the prosecution proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dalal hated Jews, it failed to answer the most vexing question. How did he come to that hatred? What led a Rutgers student down a path that ended with him and a friend facing years behind bars, their lives permanently warped by their youthful hate? It is a question that remains as the distressingly unsolved mystery of the case.’
Those are questions the Indian American community is seeking answers too.
1 Comment
Dalal is NOT guilty of anything. The real guilt lies with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and their Jewish puppet masters: http://njcorruption.us/2017/04/16/bergen-prosecutors-in-aakash-dalal-case-received-trips-to-israel-from-jewish-group-as-kickbacks/