When rideshare driver Rajneesh accepted a DiDi job in Melbourne’s west, he had no idea he would be running for his life within minutes.
The 25-year-old international student from India pulled over on Bruce St in Albion to collect his passengers, a group of four young men, about 1am on Sunday.
Within moments, one of the men in the backseat lunged forward with a machete and brought it down on three of Rajneesh’s fingers.
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“They sat inside like normal passengers … and then, BANG,” family friend Rahul Jamwal, 32, told 7NEWS.com.au.
“They literally cut tendons and nerves and everything.”
While Rajneesh remained strapped into the car, the men continued “beating and cutting” him, Jamwal said.
“One of the guys from the back came outside, opened the door and tried to pull him out of his seat,” he said.
“(Rajneesh) was yelling, ‘The seatbelt is on, what do you want? Take the car if you want to’.”
When Rajneesh fell out of the car, the beating continued with fists and a stick, and he was cut with the machete again on both knees, Jamwal said.
“You’d think these people would have a little bit of mercy for a fellow human being but, no,” he said.
“Another car came from the back and then two more guys came.”
Jamwal is amazed his friend was able to escape given the number of people involved.
“I have no clue how he was so brave to escape from this,” he said.
“He managed to run away but they ran behind him with a knife for 300m.”
Not all rideshare drivers subjected to similar attacks have been so lucky.
On Queensland’s Fraser Coast, beloved radio presenter and ridershare driver Scott Cabrie was killed by armed passengers during an Uber trip in 2023.
Cabrie was forced into the boot of his own car and driven to a nearby boat ramp where he was let out and fatally stabbed multiple times as he tried to escape. Cabrie’s body was found days later by the boat ramp.
In sentencing the teens responsible for Cabrie’s murder, Justice Peter Davis noted the vulnerable position that rideshare drivers are in as he described the gig workers as “on-call victims”.
‘Just doing his job’
The offenders involved in the attack on Rajneesh have not yet been located by police. They drove off in a car, as Rajneesh flagged down a passerby on Adelaide St for help.
He was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and underwent two major surgeries. His recovery is expected to take up to 10 months.
Jamwal said his friend will never go back to rideshare driving, even after the physical injuries have healed.
DiDi is looking into the incident but is yet to offer any support to Rajneesh, who ripped up his DiDi employee welcome pack and threw it in the bin after the incident.
7NEWS.com.au has contacted DiDi for comment.
In Melbourne alone, attacks on rideshare drivers have been all too common.
A 47-year-old rideshare driver was stabbed 15 times by passengers and left bleeding on the road in Roxburgh Park in 2021; and Uber driver Hassan Ahmad had both lungs ruptured when he was stabbed seven times by passengers in Fitzroy in 2022.
A group of 15 people armed with a baseball bat and other weapons ambushed a 34-year-old driver and passenger in Springvale in 2023; and another rideshare driver was beaten and kidnapped by passengers in Sunbury in January 2025.
Jamwal, who is currently caring for Rajneesh — covering his daily expenses, looking after paperwork, and finding him work — has organised a GoFundMe fundraiser to bolster this support.
“Unfortunately … nothing stops. His visa requirements don’t stop, if there’s bills due or rent due next week, that doesn’t stop,” Jamwal said.
“Rajneesh is a kind, hardworking person who was just doing his job.”
Machete bans brought forward in Victoria
Just days after the attack, the Victorian Government revealed it will be tightening its machete laws.
The move follows three homicides in the last six months that involved a machete, Victoria Police acting chief commissioner Rick Nugent said.
The weapons will be banned from September 1, with legislation to be put to parliament next week.
Safe disposal bins will then be set up at various locations around the state.
Those caught carrying a machete in public could now be jailed for two years, or cop fines of more than $47,000.
“I’m calling on retailers to stop ordering in these dangerous machetes, and we’ll be calling on the federal government to look at importation of these weapons that are coming into this country,” Victorian Premier Jacina Allan told Sunrise on Thursday.
Search powers will also be expanded for police to conduct targeted and random, weapons searches.
“It is hard to understand why anyone would carry such a dangerous weapon,” Allan said.
“These dangerous and deadly weapons need to be taken off our streets.”
New bail laws to be introduced into parliament on Tuesday will also put community safety first and “elevate key offences into harsher bail tests, and create a new test to target repeat offenders of the worst crimes,” the premier said.
