No evidence suggests that an attack on an 82-year-old Sikh man was a hate crime, Yuba City police said Thursday.

The incident left Prem Singh, a priest in India who came to the U.S. in 1991, with a fractured rib and cuts to his face and hands, said his son, Satnam Singh.

Satnam Singh, owner of Yuba City's Star of India restaurant, believes his father's turban and traditional beard and clothing brought on the attack. It was not a robbery and there was no other apparent motive, he said.

Prem Singh was walking about 3:30 a.m. near his home on Courtyard Way when he was assaulted. He did not report that the assailants said anything during the attack, according to Satnam Singh and police Lt. John Buckland.

The assailants in the Dec. 21 attack were described as a man and woman, both about 30 years old.

Because nothing was said, the attack is classified as random, not as a hate crime, said Buckland.

Neither is the absence of any other apparent motive reason enough to call it a hate crime, he said. [Link]