Surgeon Karthik Thangaraj remanded after pleading guilty to knife attack on taxi driver

A ROYAL Darwin Hospital surgeon, who held a knife to the throat of a cabbie during a fit of road rage, is behind bars and facing the prospect of a hefty jail sentence

Royal Darwin Hospital

A ROYAL Darwin Hospital surgeon who held a knife to the throat of a cabbie during a fit of road rage is behind bars and facing the prospect of a hefty jail sentence.

Karthik Thangaraj surrendered on an arrest warrant at Darwin Local Court on Tuesday, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a weapon and was remanded in custody until mid-February.

Thangaraj had failed to turn up to court on January 14 and defence lawyer Peter Maley told the court on Tuesday his “extremely humiliated and embarrassed” client had gone to India to see family.

“He turned up at my office and he’s given me instructions to resolve the matter,” Mr Maley said.

Royal Darwin Hospital

Court documents show Thangaraj was trying to turn off Trower Rd into the Casuarina Club bottle shop car park on the night of June 22 last year at the same time as taxi driver Gurinder Singh was leaving the carpark.

“A stalemate ensued between both the defendant and the victim in their motor vehicles and neither were willing to move out of (the) other’s way,” court documents say.

Thangaraj, whose wife is also a surgeon, pulled a small folding knife from the driver’s side door pocket walked towards Mr Singh and held the knife to his throat.

Thangaraj continued shouting at Mr Singh, whose right arm he took hold of.

Royal Darwin Hospital surgeon Karthik Thangaraj. Picture: Linkedin

Mr Singh, who was effectively pinned down in the driver’s seat of his Toyota Tarago cab, could feel the sharp edge of the blade against the skin of his throat, court documents say.

A bottle shop attendant, Alexander Marquez, ran towards the men and confronted Thangaraj, who he demanded hand over the knife.

Thangaraj drove away from the scene and falsely told police the next day he had no knowledge of the incident and that Mr Marquez must have written the registration details down incorrectly.

Mr Maley said on Tuesday, “clearly it would have been traumatic for the driver”.

Mr Maley said Thangaraj had not practised since a month before the knife attack and was seeing to his mental health issues.

Royal Darwin Hospital

Judge Elisabeth Armitage said, “on the material before me … he’s nowhere near a suspended sentence”.

“He has pleaded guilty to holding a knife to another road user, who happens to be a taxi driver, for no reason whatsoever and there’s nothing before the court which would allow me to consider bail or a suspended sentence.”

Thangaraj in 2014 pleaded guilty to high range drink driving after he blew .215 at 11am in the morning after drinking a bottle and a half of sake the night before.

Ms Armitage ordered Thangaraj undergo a mental health assessment and an assessment for home detention.

Thangaraj is expected to be sentenced on February 26.