MELBOURNE - The police are denying that a deliberate decision was taken to minimise publicity over the brutal assault on four Indians at the weekend in this Australian city.
The Indians were attacked by a group outside a bar in Epping Saturday and the attackers told the victims “You Indians, just go back to your country”.
Acting Senior Sergeant Glenn Parker, who was one of the officers at the scene, says police acted swiftly, arresting four men and taking statements from the four victims.
He says there was no attempt on the part of police to play down the incident.
“It wasn’t raised as an issue at that time, there has been no delay on the part of Victorian Police,” Parker was quoted as saying by ABC News Wednesday.
“As I say it has been from the word go, it has been an investigation, I guess it has just attracted the attention of the media in the last day or two.”
He says there has been no attempt by police to minimise publicity about the incident.
“There’s certainly no act to suppress what has taken place at all,” he asserted.
He says racist violence is unusual in Epping.
The attack comes as Victoria’s Premier John Brumby prepares to go on a mission to India to help repair Australia’s reputation.
The victims say they were bashed by up to 70 people in a car park in High Street at Epping Saturday night.
But the police say there were only four or five offenders, although there were another 15 people making racist comments.
There have been a string of attacks on Indian students since May this year. The attacks have caused an uproar in India.
India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna was assured by Canberra that students from India would be taken care of.
The latest attack takes place after a brief lull in such incidents in which the victims maintain that the assaults were racially motivated.
The brother-in-law of two of the victims, Onkar Singh, told ABC’s AM programme that his relatives have suffered serious injuries.
“Sukhdip got very badly injured in that, and Gurdeep has his jaw broken, and Mukhtair’s (the uncle) shoulder is broken,” he was quoted as saying.
“When the attack happened there was a lot of people, about 70 and they might have run away or something because they can all see the whole car park was full with them.”
Related News
Indian students don't trust Victoria policeOctober 7th, 2009 MELBOURNE - International students including Indians do not report cases of assault to the Victoria Police because they don't trust them, a state parliamentary inquiry has been told. The Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA) and the Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS) both gave evidence to the inquiry on crime against students in public places.
Australia moots safe housing, transport for Indian studentsSeptember 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - John Brumby, the premier of Australian state of Victoria, Friday proposed to give separate transportation and safe housing for Indian students studying in Australia. Union Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, after a meeting with a nine-member delegation led by Brumby, said: "It is a proposal by the Australian government.
Australian footballer held after assaulting Indian taxi driverSeptember 25th, 2009 MELBOURNE - While Australian authorities have been pledging to bring a tougher law to combat attacks on Indians living in the country, an Indian taxi driver became the latest victim of such an attack here Friday. A star Australian footballer, Michael Hurley, was arrested for kicking and punching the unidentified Indian cabbie outside a fastfood centre on Hoddle Street after an altercation early Friday morning, the Herald Sun reported.
Krishna describes attacks on Indians in Australia as unfortunateSeptember 17th, 2009 MINSK - Reacting to the recent attack on Indians in Melbourne, Australia, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna said on Thursday that the incidents were unfortunate. He said the Indian Government would take up the issue with the Australian authorities.
Don't break the law, Australian PM warns Indian studentsSeptember 16th, 2009 SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday warned students from India not to take the law into their own hands after writer and activist Farrukh Dhondy reportedly urged Indians in the country for "some form of retaliation" following the brutal assault on four Indians in Melbourne. Dhondy has urged Indians in Australia to take matters into their own hands, The Age reported Thursday.
India demands stern action against perpetrators of Melbourne attackersSeptember 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Government on Wednesday called on the Australian Government to take stern action against the perpetrators of alleged racial assaults on Indians in Melbourne, Victoria. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in a statement that the matter of the recurring attacks on Indians in Australia had been taken up with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith by Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh.
Australian police target exploitation of Indian studentsJuly 27th, 2009 SYDNEY - Police Monday raided the Sydney office of a migration agent they believe is exploiting Indians who come to study in Australia. The raid followed claims on national television that a young Indian reporter posing as a student to expose scams had been assaulted in Sydney.
Two more Indians assaulted in SydneyJune 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - Two Australian teenagers in Central Sydney reportedly attacked two Indians late on Saturday night. The attack took place on Bathurst Street.
Two Indian students assaulted in SydneyJune 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - In a fresh attack, two Indian students were assaulted with a beer bottle in Sydney. Two teenagers have been arrested for the attack.
Attacks on Indians in Australia racial outbursts: RaviJune 27th, 2009 CHENNAI - The attacks on Indian students in Australia were racial outbursts by anti-social elements, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said here Saturday. The minister said the Indian government was in touch with the Australian authorities and expressed confidence that the situation will become normal there.
And now racial assault on Indians in Canada, four chargedJune 11th, 2009 VANCOUVER - Four white Canadians were Tuesday charged with a racial assault on a group of Indians at Langley on the outskirts of Vancouver. According to police, the six Indian-origin men were playing tennis at the weekend when the four suspects approached them and started shouting "racially based expletives.''
The assailants, who included three young men and a woman, went on to pull fence boards even as they continued shouting racial "obscenities and threats.''
Police said: "The suspects attempted to enter the tennis court which was now barricaded by the tennis players.
Indians just innocent victims of crime, Sydney police officer saysJune 11th, 2009 SYDNEY - Police Superintendent of the Parramatta Local Command on the outskirts of Sydney, Robert Redfern, has said Indians were under attack because they were seen as "soft targets" amongst petty thieves. But NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director Don Weatherburn said police did not collect information on ethnicity of attackers or victims in assault crimes.
Australian cop admits of some attacks on Indians being racialJune 9th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The police chief of Australia's Victoria state on Tuesday admitted that some of the attacks on Indian students across the country were racially motivated, as claimed by most of the Indian victims. Victoria's chief commissioner of police Simon Overland said that some of the robbery attacks were racially motivated and others are were opportunistic.
Indians aren't the only ones to have been attacked: PoliceJune 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Students from India are not the only ones to have been attacked in Australia, the police say, as the Indian community here points out that some students from India do not behave properly in public places. There have been a string of attacks on Indian students that left one student suffering from severe burn injuries and another seriously injured, causing outrage in India.
New Delhi condemns attacks on Indian students in AustraliaMay 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Condemning allegedly racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, the government Wednesday said it will impress upon the Australian authorities that such attacks should not be permitted and the culprits should be brought to justice. "I have been appalled by the attack on our students in Melbourne.
Loading ...