A 15-year-old Australian boy was yesterday charged with the stabbing murder of Indian student Nitin Garg, which followed a string of attacks on Indians and threatened to derail ties with New Delhi.
The teenager, who cannot be named, appeared before the Children’s Court after his arrest in a Melbourne suburb earlier yesterday. His mother wept through the brief court hearing.
Garg, 21, was killed as he walked through parkland on his way to work at a burger restaurant on Jan. 2.
He managed to stagger to the restaurant before collapsing and dying.
The murder was strongly condemned by both Australia and India. Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna called it a “heinous crime on humanity” and “an uncivilized, brutal attack on innocent Indians.”
WAVE OF ATTACKS
It came after a wave of attacks on Indian nationals who have arrived in the country attracted by its burgeoning overseas education sector and the prospect of gaining a permanent visa.
The muggings and beatings, accompanied by migration scams and colleges charging for substandard courses, prompted street protests by Indians in Melbourne and Sydney last year.
Officials predict Indian student arrivals will drop by a fifth this year after the attacks, hitting an industry that grew to A$17.2 billion (US$15.4 billion) in 2008-2009, one of Australia’s biggest earners of foreign money.
The attacks were greeted with outrage by India’s media, with one newspaper cartoon comparing Australian police to the racist Ku Klux Klan for its handling of the Garg case.
MOTIVE
However, Detective Inspector Bernie Edwards said yesterday police did not believe racism was the motive.
“In our inquiries at this stage, we don’t believe it was racially motivated,” Edwards told journalists.
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