New York: With a steady increase in cases of racial discrimination of Indians, an elderly Indian-American man was attacked and left bleeding on a road in New Jersey. A victim of an apparent bias crime, Rohit Patel (57) was knocked down and beaten over the head by Nyle Kilgore in North Brunswick last week.

The victim sustained serious injuries including broken teeth, stitches on his mouth and forehead when he was attacked. The assailant was taken into custody, charged with bias intimidation and aggravated assault and was later released on bail.

A report in a New York daily cited police as saying that the attacker targeted Patel because he is Indian and there have been a recent string of bias attacks against men of Indian descent in the New Jersey area.

“My dad is a very fragile, innocent man who was just on his daily walk,” said Dipen Patel in a CBS report. “What went through your mind to see him and actually want to cause him pain?” Patel said painfully recalling the incident when his father was walking in the neighborhood and he saw someone getting out of the car that had stopped nearby. The attacker then followed Patel for less than a minute before knocking him out with a blow to the head.

Questioning the bail granted to Kilgore, Patel’s son said, “I don’t understand how you can have someone who is continuously committing hate crimes, violent hate crimes, and he’s able to get out the same night.” With his alleged attacker out on bail, Patel said he’s afraid to leave home and so are many in the local Indian community.

Patel and his wife had just moved to New Jersey from the United Kingdom in May and are now contemplating moving back. The New York and New Jersey areas have a huge population of Indian-origin people. Crimes have been increasing steadily especially during Indian festivals when people have cash and jewellery at home.