The Derby Telegraph and Daily Mail reported last week on an alleged assault on a Muslim taxi driver in Normanton, Derby who was subjected to a “brutal” ordeal by a passenger who refused to pay her taxi fare following a late night journey.
Shahid Iqbal, 50, was driving the female passenger and a companion to an address in Normanton in the early hours on 1 December. Mr Iqbal said the journey became problematic after he asked the woman not to place her feet on the dashboard of his car.
The situation escalated when Mr Iqbal asked the woman to pay the £7 fare, which she refused to do claiming she had no money. Mr Iqbal said he volunteered to drive the woman to a cash point to retrieve money so she could pay him but she refused to comply. He said the woman refused to pay her fare and then “lunged at him” trying to grab hold of the steering wheel.
Mr Iqbal said the woman then started demanding money from him saying he should give her “£80 for my children” before allegedly launching into a physical assault biting first on his phone and then biting him on the arm.
Mr Iqbal claimed the woman was pushing him with force out of the car and into the street. He alleges she then hit him twice before the male companion struck him “with two really hard punches which were brutal.”
Mr Iqbal called the police but the man and woman ran off before officers arrived.
The incident was filmed by someone among a group of “very large men” whom Mr Iqbal said witnessed his alleged assault but failed to provide any material assistance to him.
The Mail Online has posted the footage on its website.
Mr Iqbal has been taken aback by the callousness of the individual who filmed the attack for “entertainment”. He said: “I was gutted when I saw it on social media. Nobody came to help me that night. I was attacked on my own and I remember there being a group of people there and somebody recording it. I have since seen the video online and I think it’s a total disgrace that somebody has done this.”
The local paper notes a reported arrest in connection with the incident. A spokesman for Derbyshire police said a 23-year-old woman had been arrested by police.
Source: http://mend.org.uk/muslim-taxi-driver-assaulted-woman-refused-pay-fare-i…
