Three Year Old Indian Gurshan Channa Found Dead in Melbourne

Amid assurances issued by Canberra in wake of a slew of attacks involving Indians in that country, authorities in Melbourne have discovered the body of a three-year-old Indian boy – Gurshan Singh Channa – dumped by a roadside. With the incident triggering a huge outrage back home, New Delhi on Friday described the incident as “most unfortunate”.

According to media reports, a huge probe is underway to determine the cause behind the death of the child, who disappeared from his suburban home while his mother was in the shower.

Six hours later, his body was found dumped on Oaklands Junction of Melbourne’s Wildwood Road on Thursday night.

The subsequent autopsy conducted on the body has failed to ascertain to cause behind the child’s death, which for now is classified as suspicious and is being investigated by homicide detectives.

Gurshan had arrived in Australia from India with his parents on January 9. However, his father, Harjit Singh Channa could not get work and the family planned to return to India next week.

Foreign minister SM Krishna on Friday described the death as unfortunate but said the government was still awaiting a report from the Australian authorities to ascertain the cause of death.

“We are yet to get details of this most unfortunate incident. There are no external injury marks on the body,” Krishna said in the Rajya Sabha.

The incident comes close on the heels of Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith’s visit to New Delhi this week.

Krishna’s statement came after BJP members, terming the incident as “most horrible and shocking to the entire world”, raised the issue during zero hour in Upper House.

While deputy chairman K Rahman Khan said the issue would be taken up on Monday, senior BJP leader M Venkiah Naidu wanted Krishna to “take note” and respond.

Meanwhile, the Australian police are treating the incident as a “worst case” and have deployed all available resources to probe the suspected homicide, added the reports.

While maintaining that Gurshan’s body bore no visible signs pointing to the cause of his death, Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner, Sir Ken Jones, said his force is desperate for witnesses to come forward and present an account of what they may have seen.

Victoria state premier John Brumby said he found the death of Gurshan Singh “personally distressing.”

(Text based on media reports)