By Salonee Mistry
The post-Brexit rise in racist attacks, both physical and verbal, have had non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the UK at the receiving end ever since Britain’s decision to break away from the European Union (EU) was announced in February 2016.
And, this Pune couple wasn’t spared either. But, in a triumph of justice that would give hope to millions of other NRIs, Sachit Poonekar and Tejal Sonwalkar took the case to court and managed to elicit a favourable order and a compensation.
Living in the town of Swindon in England’s Wiltshire County for about a decade now, Poonekar and Sonwalkar consider England their second home and run a flourishing Indian food joint business there. On October 7, 2016, they were heading out of their restaurant for a delivery when Poonekar had an argument with one Michael Francis Wright over what side of the road to drive on.
That’s when Wright hurled abuses at the couple.
The case was later taken up for investigation by the police and on May 18, the Chippenham magistrate court ruled in their favour and asked Wright to pay up for the harassment.
“As is the norm here, the outgoing traffic is always given preference. There were three other cars behind me as I was leaving the parking to step out, and the British couple’s (Wright’s) car was coming from the opposite direction. They kept asking me to ‘Go back’, which I agreed to. We moved back, including the three cars behind me, to make way for this one car. When his car came parallel to mine, he got out to abuse me,” recalled Poonekar.
The Times of India