Stabbed Indian cabbie vows to quit driving taxis

Melbourne, Oct 7 (UNI) A shaken Melbourne taxi driver of Indian origin, who was stabbed by a fare-evading passenger a few days back vowed not to drive taxis again.

Baljinder Singh, 25, sustained stab wounds in his hands and back as he got involved in a scuffle with the passenger he was chasing to collect his fare.

''I don't think that I will drive cabs (again). I'm not scared but there's always a risk to your life,'' he told News Corporation reporters.

The Indian taxi driver, who has been driving in Melbourne for the last two years, had picked up a young couple from Reservoir suburb and drove them to another northern suburb around midnight.

Instead of paying his 22 dollar fare, the passengers took off.

Baljinder left his taxi and chased the male passenger.

''They said they were going inside the house and would get money from there,'' a recuperating Singh later told reporters in the hospital.

''He got a 20 dollar note and he was looking for the coins, because the fare was .80.

''He just started to run ... I chased him and caught him," Baljinder said.

''Then he put his hand into his pocket and I thought he was getting money out and he got something sharp and he hit me,'' he added.

The young taxi driver is reported to have suffered stab wounds on his left hand, back and a dislocated shoulder in the scuffle.

Melbourne Police have charged a 14-year-old boy over the stabbing of Baljinder Singh earlier in the week.

The boy from Melbourne's northern suburbs, would reportedly face seven charges including intentionally causing injury, assault and also possession of cannabis.

The teenager has been bailed to appear in a Children's Court in December.

The attack on Baljinder comes after another Indian taxi driver was killed in an accident involving a carjacker. The killing had led to an unprecedented uproar by the Melbournian cab drivers demanding more safety for the drivers.

Another Indian taxi driver Rajbinder Singh Shahi is behind bars for allegedly killing a teenager passenger by running his cab over him. The boy had allegedly taunted and racially abused Singh who ferried the victim and his friends from city to a close-by suburb.

UNI XC LL HT1055