Indian cabbie attacked in Adelaide, drivers protest

Melbourne : An Indian taxi driver was brutally beaten Down Under, in Adelaide, over the weekend. Balraj Singh was severely injured in his face and his nose broken in an attack by the two men who had hired his cab, Australian media reported.

Two 24-year-olds, Nathan Morrison and Owen Calyun have been charged with the crime. They also allegedly drove away with Singh's cab.

Morrison charged with beating up the driver and stealing his cab has applied for bail while Calyun has not yet made an application. Morrison is seeking to be released on home detention.

Lawyers for both men asked for their names to be suppressed in media reports but the request was denied by Magistrate Joanne Tracey.

Balraj Singh is in the hospital recovering from his injuries.

This is the second such attack on an Indian cab driver in Australia in the past three weeks. Last month, a 23-year-old Indian student taxi driver, Jalvinder Singh, was brutally stabbed and left bleeding on the roadside in Melbourne

Several taxi drivers in Adelaide on Monday protested the attack on Balraj. Drivers parked about 50 taxis in front of the Adelaide Magistrates Court and protested for about 45 minutes, chanting "we want justice".

From his hospital bed, Singh said he was punched in the right eye and had his seatbelt wrapped around his neck by a man in the back seat.

"You're not safe at night time. You don't know the people you pick up, who they are," he was quoted by ABC TV as saying.