UNITED NATIONS, Jan 1: Erika Menendez who has been charged with murdering Sunando Sen by pushing him in front of a sub-way as a hate crime told police she spontaneously pushed him and laughed so hard in court that the judge asked her attorney to advise her to stop laughing immediately.

She apparently believed he was Muslim and laughed and smiled during a court hearing where she was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation,.

“There is no reason. I just pushed him in front of the train because I thought it would be cool,” she said, according to the Queens district attorney's office.

Menendez's next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 14.

She laughed so hard during her arraignment in Queens criminal court that Judge Gia Morris told her lawyer: “You're going to have to have your client stop laughing.”

Defence attorney Dietrich Epperson said Menendez's behaviour in court was no different from how she had been acting when he spoke to her privately, and said his client didn't really think the proceedings were funny. He represented her for the arraignment only and had no further comment. Menendez was held without bail and ordered to undergo a mental health exam. Prosecutors said she had pushed the 46-year-old Indian to death because she blamed “Muslims, Hindus and Egyptians” for the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims - ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up,” Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.

Friends and co-workers said Sen, a native of Calcutta, was Hindu. He had lived in Queens for decades and was a graphic designer and copy shop owner sitting on a bench behind Sen until the train pulled in, then shoved him from behind. She then fled.