Melbourne: In yet another incident targeting Indians in Australia, a student-cum-cabbie was threatened with knife by his two passengers, even as police insisted that these cases were not racially-motivated.
The incident, the third against Indian cabbies in two
days, occurred yesterday when the driver, who is studying
business administration in the Victorian city of Ballart, was
called to Birdwood Avenue to pick up passengers, `The Age`
reported today.
It came shortly after another Indian taxi driver was
abused and punched by his four passengers, one of whom spat on
him, in Ballart, which is 110-kms west of here. It also
occurred just a day after a man was jailed for three months
for abusing and threatening to kill an Indian taxi driver.
In the latest case "there were only two male offenders,"
Detective Senior Constable Highthorn said. "And they also were
skylarking around in the taxi and they fled from the taxi
without paying. As they fled they produced a small knife."
The cabbie said he feared for his life but the attack
would not stop him from driving taxis.
Police believed the two incidents against drivers from
Ballart are linked. They it did not identify the two drivers.
Paul John Brogden, 48-year-old local man, was arrested,
jailed for three months and fined 1500 Australian dollars by a
judge on Thursday, hours after he pleaded guilty of holding
out a threat to kill 24-year-old Indian taxi-driver Satheesh
Thatipamula.
Detective Senior Constable Jeff Highthorn said he
believed the attacks were opportunistic rather than racially-
motivated.
The cabbie, who was assaulted by four men, had picked up
his passengers at Delacombe and was driving them to Birdwood
Avenue. While he was driving, they engaged the handbrakes and
played with the gear lever and one of them spat at him and
verbally abused him, Highthorn said, adding one of the rear
passengers punched him around the head a number of times.
Highthorn said the driver activated the alarm and the
assault continued after three of the youths jumped out of the
car and the driver gave chase. "They physically assaulted him,
punching him around the upper body," he said.
"While they were doing that, one of the other offenders
jumped into the driver`s seat and drove the taxi about 500
metres down the road. A number of taxis and police, alerted by
the alarm, soon arrived and the offenders fled. The driver`s
glasses had been smashed and he received bruising to his upper
body and face. He was taken to Ballarat Health Services Base
Hospital."
Repeated assaults on Indians have strained diplomatic
ties between India and Australia.
Yesterday`s incidents were the latest amid a string of
attacks on Indians in Australia, with 21-year-old Nitin Garg,
who was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants here,
becoming the first victim of such assaults this year.
Another Indian youth, Ranjodh Singh, was killed in New
South Wales last month. Nearly 100 cases of attacks on Indians
were reported in Australia in 2009 as against 17 incidents of
assaults in 2008.
PTI
