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MELBOURNE: Australian police on Sunday charged a man with manslaughter over the mysterious death of an Indian toddler whose body was found dumped by the side of a road.
Gurshan Singh's body was found in long grass beside an isolated road in Melbourne's north on Thursday night. An initial autopsy on the child, who was in Australia with his parents, was inconclusive.
Police allege that a part-time taxi driver who had been sharing a house with the boy and his family was responsible for his death.
"Gursewak Dhillon, 23, has been charged with one count of manslaughter by criminal negligence," senior constable Marty Beveridge said in a statement.
Dhillon was refused bail at an out-of-sessions court hearing during which Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles accused him of placing the boy unconscious but still alive in the boot of his car.
"He then drove up to at least three hours with the child in the boot of the car, eventually stopping at Oaklands Junction, where he placed the child from the boot into the grass and did not check to see if the child was alive," Iddles alleged.
Iddles did not mention how the boy came to be unconscious.
Dhillon, who lived at the same Melbourne address as the three-year-old, his parents and six others, appeared calm throughout the hearing, the AAP news agency reported.
The toddler disappeared from a suburban house on Thursday afternoon while his mother was taking a shower and his father was at a nearby library. His body was found by a council worker about six hours later around 30 kilometres away.
The child's distraught parents, who are from the Punjab in northern Indian and who had both been studying in Australia, reportedly attended a prayer service for their son on Sunday.
There had been fears the case could have further damaged relations between Australia and India which have plunged in recent months following a series of attacks on Indian students, including the murder of a 21-year-old Punjab man.
It comes after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith last week made a goodwill visit to India designed to bolster ties between the growing trade partners and quell fears about the safety of Indian students Down Under.
Smith admitted on Sunday that "we do have a job to repair some damage to our reputation as a result of the way in which the students issue has been perceived."
Tensions between India and Australia heightened in January following the stabbing murder of 21-year-old Punjab man Nitin Garg as he walked to work at a fast-food restaurant in Melbourne.
It brought to a head simmering anger over a spate of beatings and robberies of Indian students in Australia and prompted damning media coverage in India.
Dhillon is due to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. - AFP/yb
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