Indian American businessman gets key to city after becoming victim of racial rant

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Indian American Taj Sardar has been given a key to the city of Ashland, Kentucky after he was a victim of a racist rant that took place on Facebook.

According to a WSAZ report, Sardar, the owner of a Shell gas station and The Kings Diner in Ashland, was at his restaurant when an off-duty Portsmouth ambulance employee came in to grab some lunch.

The man seemed pretty content with the food and the service but after he left the restaurant, he took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook with the following comments:

“I reluctantly entered to order Monday’s meatloaf special and was greeted by a tribe from India. I would’ve been better off chewing on my tennis shoe than trying to choke down Monday’s meatloaf special I’m ashamed that I probably just funded Al Qaeda.”

After he read those comments, Sardar started to fear for his family’s safety and was disturbed by the fact that someone had affiliated him with a terrorist group, according to a report in The Independent.

Sardar was born in India and raised in Antigua and Barbuda. He came to the U.S. in 2006.

He was in New York and then moved to Ashland in 2010 to attend Marshall University and later started a business at the Shell station.

Sardar is a permanent resident of the US, who one day hopes to become an American citizen.

According to the WSAZ report, Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Services is well aware of the incident. However, they have not suspended the suspect following an internal investigation.

They have released a statement, though, saying: “We wish to apologize to anyone who was offended by those posts. We do not agree with, or condone them and are in the process of handling them accordingly.”