Tonbridge taxi driver speaks of "hurt" after racist attack on Christmas Day
A Tonbridge taxi driver and former member of the British army has spoken of his “hurt” after he was assaulted and racially abused on Christmas Day.
The shocking incident occurred as Ganga Rana, 53, of Gorham Drive, was waiting to pick someone up from an address on Elmhurst Gardens at around 6:45pm.
As he was parked in the street, a middle-aged couple walked past Mr Ganga’s cab and knocked his wing mirror out of place. But when the father-of-one – who is originally from Nepal - left the vehicle to confront them, he was set upon by the male attacker, punched to the floor and called a foreign b******.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before; no-one has ever been racist to me since I came to this country,” he said.
“They walked past and they knocked my wing mirror. I got out of the car and went over to them and asked why they had done it. We were talking and then suddenly he punched me in the face.
“It was a shock but I went up to them again asking ‘why did you hit me?’ and then he hit me two more times and I fell to the floor.
“That’s when he shouted at me that I was a foreign b******.”
Mr Ganga has been driving a cab in Tonbridge for the past 15 months after he moved to the town in 2005. He previously worked for five years as a parking attendant at Kent College.
He also previously served in the British army as a Royal Engineer from 1980 to 1994.
“It is what they said to me that is hurtful,” Mr Ganga continued. “I can accept that they were drunk which is why they might have hit me but I cannot understand the racist abuse.
“I was just doing my job and he attacked me for no reason.”
Mr Ganga’s daughter, Kiran, 30, works as a dental nurse said her father was shocked by the racism of his attacker and was extremely angered by the incident.
“He is very upset by the racist language they used,” she told the Courier. “He was just out doing his job and he can’t understand why they would say something like that to him.
“Just because we are from a different country doesn’t give people the right to act this way.
“There are some people who are just idiots and you have to try and ignore them. Hopefully the police can find some witnesses and catch this man.
The suspect is described as being a “fat” white male, aged between 50 and 60 wearing glasses, shorts, sandals and a winter hat.
Read more: http://www.courier.co.uk/Tonbridge-taxi ... z3OFQk5ZPL
