MELBOURNE: An Indian man who claimed he was set on fire in a racial attack in Australia was actually burnt while torching his car for an insurance claim, police said on Wednesday.
A series of attacks on Indian students in Australia over the past 18 months, which police have said are criminal rather than racially motivated, have strained ties between the two nations and damaged Australia’s lucrative foreign student market. Indian media have slammed Australia as a racist country but Indian nationals have now been charged over two of the most recent attacks.
Australian authorities cited not only the Indian man who has been charged after burning himself in an alleged insurance scam but also the case of Indian Ranjodh Singh.
Two Indian nationals have been charged with his murder after his body was found on the side of a road last December.
Around 4,000 Indian students have canceled plans to study in Australia after the attacks. The foreign student market is Australia’s third-largest export earner, worth $13 billion Australian dollars ($12 billion) in 2007-08.
Australian politicians and diplomats called on Wednesday for more balanced reporting by Indian media, saying reports of racist attacks had “done serious damage to Australia’s image in India.”
“The Indian public should be assured that the perpetrators will be punished, but please let the police and the courts get on with their work,” Australia’s High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese said in a statement.
“Australia has zero-tolerance for violence and zero-tolerance for racism. Both are reflected in Australian law, and in the penalties the courts are handing out,” he said.
