Indian taxi driver charged over bashing passengers in St Kilda - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

An Indian taxi driver is facing charges for bashing a passenger who was knocked unconscious in the St Kilda area, on the outskirts of Melbourne. The 25-year-old passenger was involved in a heated argument with the cab driver around 10 p.m. last night as they pulled over in Acland St in St Kilda, reports the Herald Sun. A witness says the passenger tried to walk away but the cab driver chased him down and had to be restrained by security staff working at a nearby business. The passenger kept walking away as the cab driver then grabbed a baton from the boot of his cab, drove up next to the passenger and allegedly starting striking the man repeatedly with the weapon, the witness says. "Within a few minutes, many other cab drivers, all of them Indian, all turned up," witness Karen told Fairfax Radio this morning. "And I could just see how out of hand this is all getting." Paramedics say they treated the passenger for bruising and swelling to his upper body and took him to The Alfred hospital in a stable condition. The 32-year-old cab driver was arrested and later charged with intentionally causing injury and two counts of unlawful assault.