Indian American was wrongfully arrested |
An Indian American student who works at a gas station in Santa Cruz, Calif., claims he was wrongfully arrested by police late night Aug. 31 as he tried to defend himself and his business from a group of homeless people who refused to leave the property. Nithin Kumar Racha is a 26-year-old native of Hyderabad who is studying to attain his master`s degree in information technology at Silicon Valley University. He was arrested at 2:20 a.m. Aug. 31 at the 76 gas station where he works the graveyard shift. After spending most of the day in jail, friends were able to bail him out at 10 p.m. that night on a bond of $25,000.Racha told India-West that on the night he was arrested, a group of four transients were seen on the outside of the gas station – at 1506 Soquel in Santa Cruz – allegedly creating a nuisance. A customer came in and complained to Racha, who confronted the group and asked them to leave within five minutes.One member of the group confronted him, according to Racha, who said he felt physically threatened. He went back inside to get a baseball bat. “I wanted to protect myself. I thought they had weapons,” he said. Racha then went back out to the group of homeless people who had not yet left the property. But as he approached the group, “One of the men attacked me.
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