Indian cabbie abused and assaulted in Australia

canberra — An Indian cab driver was assaulted and beaten unconscious in the Australian state of Tasmania by two passengers who yelled racial slurs at him.

Pardeep Singh, 25, was beaten by two passengers at the Sandy Bay McDonald’s drive-through on Saturday night. Singh said he was attacked when he asked the woman passenger to step outside the cab as she was going to throw up, Mercury newspaper reported on Monday.

“Please get out of the car... If you mess up the car you have to pay a cleaning fee,” Singh told the woman.

Singh said the passengers started abusing him and the woman told him in an expletivefilled rant that she wouldn’t pay the fare or cleaning fee.

“They punched me too many times and kicked me,” Singh said. “(They said) ‘You f ..... g Indians deserve this’.”

Singh was admitted overnight to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Police offical Ian Whish-Wilson said the two passengers were charged in relation to the assault on Singh.

“There was a dispute over payment and it is alleged the passengers assaulted the driver and damaged the vehicle,” said the police official. —