Taco Bell customer charged with hate crime over anti-Hindu rant in incident caught on camera

A man has been charged with a hate crime after a video appears to show him verbally attacking a man waiting for his order at a Taco Bell in Fremont, Calif., authorities said Monday night.

According to the Freemont Police Department, 37-year-old Singh Tejinder was “seen and heard directing religious slurs and derogatory comments towards” Krishnan Iyer on Aug. 21.

Police were alerted about a “disturbance between two customers” by a Taco Bell employee at approximately 8:20 p.m. Officers arrived at the fast food restaurant, de-escalated the situation, and interviewed both men separately.

Authorities determined that “one male used extremely offensive and hurtful language toward the other male,” but a hate crime couldn’t be established at the time, and the suspect was not arrested.

A video of the incident recorded by Iyer shows a man in a black T-shirt and shorts shouting at him, unprovoked, and repeatedly calling him “dirty Hindu” and “ugly Hindu,” and saying he “bathes in cow urine” and eats “cow s–t.”

Iyer also said that the man spat at him — but missed.

On Aug. 22, Iyer took to Twitter to thank Freemont police for rescuing him “from a racist abuser at @tacobell Fremont.”

“The part that sucked was that the abuser [spat] on the counter where food was being served and despite pointing that out, the Taco Bell employees continued serving the food on it,” he wrote.

The Daily News Flash

Weekdays

Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.

FDP later reviewed the video showing parts of the interaction between the two men.

“In this recorded interaction, one man can be seen and heard directing religious slurs and derogatory comments towards the person holding the camera,” police said.

They interviewed the victim again and presented the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for review.

The DA’s office then charged Tejinder with a hate crime in violation of civil rights, and disturbing the peace by offensive language.

Tejinder is currently on probation with a petition to revoke the probation. He was not in custody in Alameda County as of Monday night, according to police.

Iyer responded to the news of the hate crime charge by thanking law enforcement officials and media outlets on Twitter.

He added, “All love No Hate!”