Indian couple in Australia alleges racist attack

MELBOURNE: An Indian couple living in a Melbourne suburb today claimed that a group of three people, including two women, beat them up with an iron rod and a steel chair in an apparent racist attack.

Rodney Raj and his wife Rathna said they were attacked on November 14 in their home in Bundoora, 19 km north-east from the Melbourne central business district.

Describing the ordeal to Indian television channel 'Times Now', Rodney said at around 10.30 pm, he heard his dog barking and opened the door to find two girls and a boy on his porch. He told them to go away.

But after some time, he heard a sound in his garage and went there to see that a chair has been put atop his car and they were "scanning my letter-box". When he asked them what was happening, the man "started running towards me and grabbed me. I grabbed him back," Rodney said.

"One of the woman grabbed the chair, the other woman had an iron post. One woman started bashing me with the chair and the other woman started bashing me with the iron post. I took 3-4 blows before I fell to the ground. The guy sat on me and started punching me. He landed about 6-7 blows on my face and kept saying he would kill me," Rodney said.

When her wife rushed in, the girls "started teasing her and tried to get her clothes off," he claimed. He went to protect her and took more blows, he said.

There was no police confirmation of the incident, neither it was reported in Australian media