Kerala man assaulted, racially abused in Australia's Hobart city: 33-year-old to meet Indian envoy

An Indian man from Kerala was assaulted by a group of teenagers in Australia’s Hobart city, in an alleged case of racial abuse. Limax Joy, who hails from Meenadom in Kottayam, sustained head injuries when five teenagers allegedly hurled racial abuse at him and then beat him up at a McDonald’s outlet early on Sunday.

This is the second such incident this week, after a Catholic priest of Indian heritage was stabbed in the neck at a church in Melbourne.

Joy, who is pursuing a nursing course and works as a part-time taxi driver in Australia, alleged that five people, including a girl, hurled racial abuses like “you bloody black Indians” at him and assaulted him at the restaurant, where he had stopped for a coffee. According to television reports Joy will meet the Indian High Commissioner on Monday.

He alleged that the five accused were arguing with a worker inside the store but soon turned their attention to him the moment they noticed him. When others in the restaurant telephoned police, the attackers left, but returned later to assault him again.

Joy was admitted to the nearby Royal Hobart Hospital and was later discharged the same day. The police have since filed a complaint.

According to a report in  Hindustan Times , Joy told a Malayalam news channel that, “A big boy in a black T-shirt yelled racial abuses and attacked me without any provocation. I was literally shocked.” “Nobody intervened when I was attacked,” he added.

Joy, who has been living in Hobart for the last eight years, was quoted as saying by Australian media that “the racial mood is definitely changing. It is continuous now. Many other drivers have been abused but not everyone reports it to the police.”

Joy has since sought intervention of the External Affairs Ministry to ensure punishment to the accused and has alleged that there was no serious efforts from the authorities to bring the guilty to justice.

Meanwhile, Kottayam Lok Sabha MP Jose K Mani condemned the incident and said that he will raise the issue with the External Affairs Ministry on Monday.

In another racial attack earlier this week, an Indian-origin Catholic priest was stabbed in the neck at a church in Melbourne by a man who called him unqualified to say mass as he was an Indian, prompting the Indian consulate to take up the matter with the police.

With inputs from PTI