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Prosecutor Demands Murder Charge In Death of a News Vendor

A P Kamath

The robber, who made away with less than $ 50, may not have planned to harm his victim, but now the police are looking to charge the thief with the murder of 69-year-old Amritlal Salva.

Salva suffered a heart attack in captivity in Fairview, a small New Jersey city. The prosecutors now want to try the robber on a murder charge.

"We don't have any obvious injuries and we have a person who is bound, and assuming he died of a heart attack, it would still be a felony murder," James Santulli, assistant Bergen County prosecutor said on May 25.

The robber had not been arrested till May 25 evening – two full days since Salva died. Police say they are still looking for leads.

Salva, the owner of the newsstand and candy shop in Fairview, was robbed in the early evening hours of May 22. He was tied and left in a bathroom. A shop owner next door found the shop open with nobody inside, and called the police.

Santulli said the regardless of the direct cause of death, the robber will be held responsible for Salva's death.

Newsstand vendors are a natural prey to robbers because – like cab drivers – they keep cash in their shops. More than 60 per cent of newsstand employees are from the Indian subcontinent.

"We are natural victims," says Hasmukh Patel who runs a newsstand in Richmond Hill. "The thieves think because we are Indians, because we are foreigners, we do not have papers or green cards… that we are afraid to complaint to the police."

According to conservative estimates by newsstand operators, more than 200 shops are robbed in New York and New Jersey each year. But murders are rare. Three newsstand operators have been killed in New York in the past five years. The numbers for New Jersey are not available. Arguably, Salva was the first newsstand murder victim.

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