In a brutal incident, an Indian restaurant owner Sumeet Anand was beaten up by two men on Monday night in the Australian city of Ballarat.
The incident which occurred at around 10:30 pm saw 43-year-old Anand suffer facial injuries in the attack even as his wife Mandeep and their ten-year-old son watched.
In an interview to The Courier, he said that the people hurled 'racial abuses' while thrashing him.
“Me, my wife and my son went to Humffray Street after finishing work. I told her to stop the car and I'll go grab a couple of beers and by the time I opened the car, out of nowhere these two guys came running and they started bashing me and saying things like ‘go back to your own f****** country, you don’t belong here, you took our jobs," The Courier quoted him as saying.
“He was lying on the road – they kept bashing him. They treated him like he was an animal. My son was crying, he was shocked,” Anand's wife Mandeep was quoted as saying.
Xavier Mani, president of the Ballarat Indians Association told SBS Punjabi that the Indian community was concerned about the incident. He advised members of the community members to remain cautious. He also said that the representatives will also meet the mayor to raise the concerns of the community.
The police have said that an investigation is underway. Watch the video here.