Melbourne, Nov 16: A Sikh restaurateur living in Australia has alleged that he has been racially targeted several times in recent months, telling him to "go home" and smearing his car with dog excrement.

Jarnail Singh, who runs a restaurant in Hobart, Tasmania, said he has been continuously targeted for over the last two, or three months, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"Never, ever has this happened to me before, and it's been continuous (over) the last two, three months," Singh was quoted as saying.

"It's mentally very stressful when it comes to your house, and particularly (being targeted) with your name on it... It's too much mental stress. Something has to be done," Singh told ABC News on Tuesday.

The first incident involved dog excrement being smeared on the door handles of his car, for four or five days in a row, outside his home.

Then, he found racist graffiti in his driveway, telling him "Go home, Indian".

He reported the matter to the police, but, without video evidence, little could be done to track down who was behind it.

Filled with racist comments, Singh first assumed the letter had been written by a young person, and did his best to ignore it, after reporting it to police.

The next letter received about a month later, was even more offensive than the first including comments like "you can **** off back to India" and threats of damage to his car, at either Singh's work or his home.

Singh has lived in Australia for around 15 years, with 10 of those being in Tasmania.

In a statement, Tasmania Police Commander Jason Elmer said the incidents had been reported to police and were being investigated.

He said current legislation allowed for courts to "consider that a motivation of racial hatred or prejudice can be an aggravating factor in sentencing".

Commander Elmer said there was "no excuse for any form of verbal or physical harassment" in the community, and that people were encouraged to contact police immediately if they believe they have been the victim of a prejudice-related incident.

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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.

"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.

Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.

When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".

The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.

"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.

After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.

The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.

"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.

There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.

"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".

Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.

"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.

When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."

The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.

The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.

"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.