Gwinnett, Georgia, Cop Threatens to Blow Away Priests

It all started when two priests, Anilkumar Parimalan, and Seshamani Viswanathan, 23 and 57, from the Hindu Temple of Georgia were physically attacked on July 31, 2009. Two Indian American brothers, Valmikinathan and Sundaram Raghunathan were the alleged culprits. According to the priests, they trespassed on to the Temple grounds to take unauthorized photos, it is believed, to use in their conspiracy against the Temple. Cameras are not allowed in Hindu Temples, so Anilkumar went outside to ask them to stop taking the photos and leave. He was immediately beaten and thrown to the ground by Valmiki. Seeing this, priest Seshamani ran outside to help stop the attack. He pleaded, "He is just a boy; why do you attack him?" However, this only prompted Valmiki's brother Sundaram to go after the elder priest. In the latter filed incident report Seshamani stated that Sundaram " -- grabbed his arm, pulled his hair, hit and kicked him." Both priests were taken by ambulance to Gwinnett Medical Center in Duluth, Georgia.

Cpl. Cwalina of the Gwinnett County Police, who had investigated a previous bomb threat at the Temple, it is believed, asked a Gwinnett County judge to recall the arrest warrants applied for by the priest. The Judge recalled the warrants due to an "ex-parte communication" from law enforcement. Cwalina was supposedly going to investigate the alleged attack on the two priests, even though the corporal's supervisor subsequently told the Temple that they do not investigate such misdemeanors. Yet, sometime between September 4th and 10th 2008, he came to the temple in Norcross and stated that he wanted to investigate Anilkumar and Seshamani and started asking them questions. He told the priests that they should withdraw their complaints against Valmiki and Sundaram or that he would arrest them! According to the priests his threatening manner made them afraid of him. The priests told him to ask their lawyer any questions that he needed answered about the attack. The detective was informed by their lawyer Kovan Grover, PC that his clients were only to be questioned in his presence at the District Attorney's office. "Investigator" Cwalina apparently never took up this offer to interrogate the victims in this manner.

Then on October 28th 2008, Cpl. Cwalina shows up appearing very angry and using bad language, according to the priests, with over a dozen police officers and a couple of members of the press ostensibly to execute Search Warrant Docket Number 08X00719 against Dr. Commander Selvam at the Temple for the latter dropped charge of "Practicing Medicine with out a License." When asked to see the search warrant, the only native English speaking office worker was ordered by threat of arrest out of the building. It is theorized that this was to avoid having any American Temple Employee eye-witnesses, because no one else was ordered out. Soon after entering the premises, Cwalina allegedly took the two priests, one at a time, with a Tamil interpreter, and threatened them again to withdraw their cases against Valmiki and Sundaram. Again they said that they would not, and he left them. After a few minutes, he again got them alone, but this time together and without the interpreter. The priests say that he pulled out his handgun put it to their heads and threatened that if they don't withdraw the warrants for the battery case against the Raghunathan brothers he was going to shoot them right there on the spot!

Priest Anilkumar reports that he told the corporal that he would "stand for the truth, and not go against the truth. I have been a priest since childhood, and I would not lie for him." And that he then turned to priest Seshamani and held his gun up to him and threatened him to withdraw the warrant against Valmiki. Seshamani stated that he trembled, cried and said, "No, no, no!" They say Cwalina then got the Temple's Chief Priest L. V. Sharma to join them and he threatened him, showing his gun, and demanded that he "get them to withdraw the case or else he would shoot him down." To that Sharma said that he would not. Then, upset and angry, they claim he went throughout the Temple and started breaking open doors with his black booted foot.

A civil complaint was filed against Gwinnett County Police Department on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 in the U. S. District Court of Northern Georgia for "Violation of Constitutional... (and) Civil Rights." The Temple and the priest are jointly demanding in excess of $ 26 Million.