LONDON (NEWS): In a vicious racist attack on Gujarati man in Britain, hooligans beat him black and blue on a jampacked tram but nobody helped him and nobody has been arrested so far.
Prakash Patel, who is a bank officer in Manchester and lives in New Moston, was severely beaten up by seven men, leaving him with black eyes and concussion in January.
The story of this racist attack has come out only after the battered Indian man spoke to the media after undergoing medical treatment.
A fan of Manchester United, Patel said he and his 21-year-old daughter Devyani were coming back on a tram after watching the United-Fulham match at Old Trafford when he was beaten up. Nobody in the packed tram came to his rescue as his daughter fought the attackers, he said.
Speaking to Manchester Evening News, Patel said, “There were more than 200 people just in our carriage, it was so packed you couldn’t move. About six men or seven men came on to the tram and started making indecent racist comments.
“Myself and my daughter felt distressed and very uncomfortable about this so I said: `Just behave’. I said it again ‘please behave’ and that’s when it started. There was one in front of me and one behind me both punching me in my face and on the back of the head. They were hitting me in the face, the eyes, the head. After two punches I think I blacked out but the carriage was so full that I was unconscious while standing up. Nobody did anything or said anything, they all just stood and watched us.’’
Prakash Patel after he was battered by racist thugs in Manchester in January. Photo courtesy Manchester Evening News.
Patel added, “I managed to lean against the side of the tram while they got out. They told me ‘If you want to finish this get off the tram’ before they got off calmly at the G-MEX stop.’’
He said nobody came to his rescue as his daughter “managed to push one of the men off and then the other stopped. It seemed like the other passengers just wanted the drama.
“I had concussion and I needed a CT scan and was off work for two weeks. My wife had to stay off too to look after me. Now I can’t walk outside on my own and I will never go on public transport again and I will only ever watch Manchester United in a box, never again will I sit in the stands. I lost 3kg in the two weeks after the attack.’’
The distraught Indian said, “If I could, I would leave the country but my family is too established here. Perhaps if it had been two groups of men fighting each other I could understand but this was two young men attacking an older man and his young daughter. How can this happen?’’
Devyani, an estate agent who lives with her parents in New Moston, told the paper, “I was screaming at them to stop but nobody did anything or said anything. I am tiny and I’m a woman, I don’t understand why nobody did anything. Afterwards, when the men got off, one man came up and said he was a witness and gave me his number. But where was he when it was all happening? That’s what hurts the most – that nobody did anything, nobody said anything. I have lost my faith in society.’’
She said, “Later at the police station they showed us the CCTV footage. You can’t see the men but you can see all those passengers watching. It sent a shiver down my spine when I saw that. Some of them were actually jumping up to get a better view.”
Police are appealing for any witnesses to the incident which happened on January 26.
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