3 February 2010
Statement by the High Commissioner to ANI TV Wire agency
The most recent arrests made in Australia in relation to attacks on Indian nationals underlines a very important point, which is that it is important to wait for the facts to come in before anyone jumps to conclusions about the motives behind these attacks. What we have seen are two very high-profile cases which were reported around the world, in India and in Australia as racist attacks. It is now clear on the basis of the concluded police investigations that at least in these two very high-profile cases, racism could not be seen as a motivation.
It is important that the police investigations are allowed to continue. it is important that our court system is allowed to consider prosecutions, reach a verdict and if someone is guilty, to impose the appropriate penalty. That is precisely what is happening. We have had over 50 arrests in Australia now in relation to crimes against Indian nationals; those arrests are working their way through the courts system. In some cases, the courts have taken advantage of their capacity to impose tougher penalties where hate or race is involved -- in one instance, up to 18 years' imprisonment for a particularly vicious attack on a person of Indian origin. This reflects the rule of law which operates in Australia, it reflects the principles of the rule of law which of course are well known to all Indians.
We are taking these attacks seriously; we are pursuing the police investigations with diligence. We will find the culprits and when we find them, they will be brought to justice in an open and transparent way and people can then form a conclusion about why these attacks are occurring.
On the charging earlier today of the person who had claimed to have been set alight in a racist attack, they are charging with a false report and with insurance fraud and we now need to wait for the court system to consider the case. But it is an example of why it is important not to run with initial media reports as a given. As it turned out in this case which received wide spread publicity as a racist attack, the conclusions reached by the police were somewhat very different to the initial reporting.