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Indian couple, another charged
in Ranjodh murder
NO RACE
MOTIVE Sutherland Local Court
refuses bail; third assailant not identified
 MELBOURNE: An
Indian couple are among the three persons charged with murdering
mutual friend Ranjodh Singh, who was stabbed multiple times and set
ablaze while still alive, on Friday.
They were denied
bail during a court appearance in
New South Wales
province of Australia. Police had, on Thursday, arrested the couple
identified as 23-year-old Gurpreet Singh and his 20-year-old wife,
Harpreet Bhullar.
Both Gurpreet
Singh, who was arrested at a Sydney car wash where he worked, and
his wife were charged with murdering Ranjodh, 25, a fruit picker
whose body was found halfburnt beside Wilga Road at Willbriggie near
Griffith on December 29.
The couple faced
Sutherland Local Court on Friday and were formally refused bail by
Magistrate Bernard Kennedy.
A Punjabi
interpreter will be arranged for their next court appearance due on
February 3, at Wagga Wagga Local Court.
Police arrested
another man, aged 25, in Wagga Wagga on Friday and later, charged
him with murder. The man, who was not identified, too is due in
Wagga Local court on February 3.
New South Wales
Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said all three accused
knew Ranjodh Singh and ruled out race as a motive for the killing.
"We will allege
that all three people that we've now detained over this matter were
well acquainted with the victim, Singh, and were involved in the
fruit picking industry in Griffith area," Murdoch said.
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Aussie minister
promises regular info on probe
SINGAPORE:
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has assured India of
“regular information” on the investigations into and prosecutions
for the attacks on Indian students.
Smith conveyed
this to External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna during their meeting
in London earlier this week.
In comments to
the media, Smith said: “I apprised him of the formation of the High
Level Working Group between the Commonwealth [of Australia]
and Victoria to deal with these matters, and I undertook to keep him
regularly provided with information on investigations and
prosecutions as they come to hand.”
The two leaders
“underlined [their] joint concern about [the] attacks on Indian
students.” It was also agreed that “this was a difficult issue.”
Smith said he
and Mr. Krishna “did not want [this issue] to get in the way of the
good and strong bilateral relationship.” Australia
and India had taken their ties to “new levels in the last couple of
years.”
Meanwhile,
toeing a line different from that of Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd, his nephew Van Thanh Rudd, has said the attacks on Indian
students were “racially motivated.”
“These attacks
on Indians are racially motivated, I have no doubt in my mind about
that. Australians are racist,” Rudd, leader of the Revolutionary
Socialist Party, said in an interview to the Outlook magazine.
Kevin Rudd had
said he did not want to term the attacks racial. He said the attacks
were regrettable but should be seen in the context of broader
incidents of violence against locals and students of other ethnic
groups.
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3
February 2010
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