Australia hands over attacks dossier to India

Australia government has handed over to India a police dossier of high-profile attacks on Indians over the past year, which reveals that nearly half of the attackers were juveniles.

The dossier, prepared by Victoria Police, was handed over in recent weeks, after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith telephoned his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna on January 11 to express his condolences over the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg in Yarraville.

“It shows nearly half of those arrested between March 2009 and January 5 — three days after the Garg killing — were under 18,” The Age newspaper reported.

The dossier shows that among the 18 high-profile cases, two cases of assault reported in May and June last year remained unsolved, the paper said.

Sources said Australian Government initially resisted providing more information to Indians as it deemed racial appearance to be a limited indicator of ethnicity because it was only based on a subjective police assessment.

It claimed people described as Indians could originate from countries such as Mauritius and Fiji.

The dossier shows that of the 18 cases, two people were run over by a train and there was no foul play. While three cases remained unsolved, 33 people have been arrested over the remaining 13 cases.

The attackers aged under 18 involved in incidents last year included four of five youths who assaulted and robbed two Indians at a train station in March and Four youths who attacked Indian student Sourabh Sharma on a train in May.

One of the two attackers who asked an Indian man for money in Footscray in November and stabbed him 14 times after he offered them 20 cents.

Mr. Smith, who is in Botswana, and Victoria Police were unavailable for comment.

The revelations come as police on Tuesday charged five men over a racist bashing of two Indian students in the city on Monday night.

Police on Tuesday charged five men aged 19 and 20 with assault-related offences over the Monday bashing.

They earlier said the alleged attackers were of Asian appearance. Four others were released.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said the victims were allegedly subjected to racial taunts. “It’s terrible that’s happened, we don’t condone violence, we don’t condone racism.”

Police said one of the victims, 18, was pushed to the ground and kicked by several attackers about 10.20 pm in Swanston Street. He had microsurgery after his ear was cut with a weapon. His friend, 22, was punched to the ground.

Mr. Overland said a lot of the violence was not race related but came from living in a big city.