Melbourne: An Indian businessman in Australia has claimed that his family was racially abused and spat on by two men. Raj Sharma, owner of the restaurant Indian Mehfil, along with his wife and two children, was racially abused and spat on by two men outside his restaurant in Ipswich locality in the Australian state of Queensland. Ipswich City Council Safe City Programme and the police identified the two suspects for the attack, one of whom was arrested and charged with public nuisance offence. A 22-year-old youth has been arrested for the attack on the family and is due to appear in court on July 16. The man was later granted watch house bail. A second male was issued with an infringement notice, The Queensland Times reported.

Ipswich Councillor Andrew Antoniolli, whose office is across the road from Indian Mehfil, said the attack was unacceptable. “Clearly they’re copping abuse from the church garden on a regular basis,” he said, adding that “This incident is quite disturbing from the point of view of the racism, the language and the abuse.” Sharma said that three men were sitting on the hill near St Paul’s Church started racially abusing his family who were on the veranda outside Indian Mehfil. They turned their attacks to one of the restaurant’s staff members who walked outside and then a passer-by who attempted to intervene. “I took my wife and kids inside straight away and called the police,” Sharma said, adding “One of the group then came inside the restaurant and continued to hurl abuse at them, spitting on Sharma’s family.” He said the attacks on his staff, and only those of Indian descent, were regular, occurring as often as once a week. “This is a common practice,” Sharma said. “It used to happen at night. This happened in broad daylight,” he said.