Sydney, June 25 (IANS): A 22-year-old youth has been arrested for an alleged racial attack on the family of a leading Indian businessman in Australia, a media report said Wednesday.
Raj Sharma, owner of the restaurant Indian Mehfil, along with his wife and two children, was racially abused and spat on by three men outside his restaurant in Ipswich locality in the Australian state of Queensland Tuesday, The Queensland Times reported.
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 second male was issued with an infringement notice.
The attacker, from Leichhardt, will appear in the Ipswich Magistrates Court July 16.
The attack came just weeks after two of Sharma's restaurant staff members were attacked in the Ipswich Mall, the report said.
Sharma, who also owns Stumps Hotel, Fitsoul sports store and a number of bottle shops, said three teenagers were sitting on the hill near St Paul's Church yelling racially charged abuse at his family who were on the veranda outside Indian Mehfil.
The teenagers 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," the report quoted Sharma as saying.
One man from the group then came inside the restaurant and continued to hurl abuses, spitting on Sharma's family, the report said.
"I had the police on the phone and I told him: 'Please leave, please leave'," Sharma said.
"We did not provoke them, we did not retaliate," he added.
According to him, the attacks on his staff, and only those of Indian descent, were regular, occurring as often as once a week.