The India taxi driver suffered several injuries and had to be hospitalized. The India taxi driver suffered several injuries and had to be hospitalized.

An Indian-born taxi driver was brutally beaten in Sandy Bay region of Tasmania in Australia, in an alleged “racist attack”. According to news agency ANI, the Hobart-based driver said he was attacked by a couple he picked up on Friday night, after he raised objections against the women passenger, who kept opening the door on the way, to throw up.

The driver said the passengers started hurling abuses and profanities at him, and later started kicking his vehicle. The female passenger reportedly referred to the driver as “bloody Indian” while the male passenger repeatedly punched and kicked him. “You f****** Indian, you deserve it,” the passengers said, according to the driver. According to a report on the incident in an Australian news website, the cabbie has been admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

According to a police official cited in a report in The Mercury, a man and a woman have been charged in the case. The official further told the news website that there are allegations against the driver that he asked passengers to leave his taxi after one of them got sick. He further said the dispute may be over payment and “it was alleged a racial comment was made during the assault but it does not appear that the incident was racially motivated.”

The driver, 25, who is studying hospitality, told The Mercury he will no longer continue the profession “because it’s so dangerous”. He further asked police to take stronger actions against “taxi thugs” rather than just “a slap on the wrist”. “People in India ask me why do I stay here. I stay because 95 per cent of people are good,” the driver was quoted by The Mercury.

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