His face bruised, his hand broken and legs beaten, Punjabi newspaper publisher Boota Basi spoke from a bed at his home, still wearing hospital clothes, after surviving an attack inside his home. According to court information, Basi has had to defend himself from lawsuits in more than a dozen civil court cases in recent years.
SACRAMENTO — The publisher of a Punjabi newspaper in the Sacramento area of California who was brutally beaten inside his home says he was targeted because of his work but it could also be due to his work filing allegedly false asylum applications for illegal immigrants.
His face bruised, his hand broken and legs beaten, Punjabi newspaper publisher Boota Basi spoke from a hospital bed, still wearing hospital clothes, after surviving the vicious attack inside his home, reported CBC News Sacramento.
Basi is one of those controversial Punjabi newsmen you find across North America, from Toronto to Vancouver and New Jersey to California.
According to court information, Basi has had to defend himself from lawsuits in more than a dozen civil court cases in recent years.
One California case – Hundal v. Holder – about a false asylum application, which was prepared by one Boota Basi, the State’s ruling clearly states that this Boota Basi prepared the Hundal asylum application and then admitted that it was a fraudulent asylum application.
“There is substantial evidence to support the IJ’s finding that Hundal’s asylum application was more likely than not fraudulent. Boota Basi, the person who prepared Hundal’s asylum application, testified extensively about the process by which he and his partner, Kashmir Malhi, created fraudulent asylum applications. Basi gave a detailed account of how he had several templates of false stories of which he would change certain biographical and background information to specifically cater to each individual, and that none of the applications he prepared, including Hundal’s, were true. The characteristics of Basi’s work that reappeared in all of the applications he prepared were all apparent in Hundal’s application. The IJ properly assessed Hundal’s testimony and considered Basi’s credibility and any incentive he may have had to testify falsely, and determined that Hundal was not entitled to asylum at the time it was granted,” said the IJ ruling on the asylum application prepared by Boota Basi.
Basi told the media he was attacked by a group of men when he answered his front door but has not yet revealed their identities.
“I opened the door and the guy pushed me into the house,” he said. “Only thing I could think—this is the end of my life.”
Basi says he writes to expose people who steal public money and take money in the name of religion. He believes his attackers want his work to stop.
“This is nothing,” he said “They could have killed me with a gunshot.”
Basi says he started his Punjabi newspaper three years ago. That weekly now has a circulation of more than 10,000, a website and enemies.
“I can’t tell who it is, but I have a couple in mind,” he said.
Even though he has become the target of a violent crime—he promises it will only reinforce his passion to publish.
“They cannot stop me,” he said. “I continue my job.”
