Dozens of family members and friends have gathered at a Thomastown house this afternoon to pay their respects to toddler Gurshan Singh Channa.
Sikh community figure and Darebin councillor Tim Singh Laurence said charges laid last night against Gursewak Dhillon had helped ease the familys pain.
Obviously they were dealing not only with the unbearable pain of losing a three-year old toddler, but dealing with the anxiety of not knowing what had happened to their child, Cr Laurence said.
With the police announcing progress in the case, it gives some relief to them but the pain of losing a child remains.
Cr Laurence said it was still unknown when the toddlers funeral would be held in India……..
Earlier, Victoria Police was forced to deny further arrests have been made in connection with the toddler’s death.
Media reports in India are claiming the wife of a 23-year-old housemate of the child has been arrested after the man was charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence over the death.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Mr Dhillons wife was likely to be charged with helping her husband in disposing of the body after she was also placed under arrest.
But Victoria Police said today this was not the case.
Definitely not. The wife has not been arrested or charged, a police spokeswoman said.
She added that no further arrests or charges over the three-year-old boys death were expected.
Mr Dhillon, a part-time taxi driver, has faced an out-of-sessions court hearing at which it was alleged he placed the child in the boot of his car unconscious, but still alive, on Thursday.
Gurshan was found dead about 20 kilometres from his home about six hours after he was reported missing.
No evidence has been heard on how the little boy was rendered unconscious and an autopsy has failed to determine a cause of death.
Mr Dhillon lived in the same house, in Lalor, northern Melbourne, as the boy and his parents and several other people.
He was denied bail and remanded in custody over the long weekend and will appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court tomorrow.
The Indian community has praised Victoria Police for their efforts in investigating the toddlers death. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/tributes-to-indian-toddler-gurshan-singh-channa-20100308-prf7.html
UPDATE – Boy might have lived if given first aid – March 9, 2010: POLICE believe Indian toddler Gurshan Singh Channa may not have died if he had received even basic first aid rather than being left in the boot of a car.
The man charged over the death, Gursewak Dhillon, has admitted disposing of the body but denied deliberately injuring the child. He told police the boy was accidentally knocked unconscious on Thursday at the house in David Street, Lalor, where he had been staying.
Dhillon has claimed he panicked and put the unconscious boy in the boot of a car, drove for about three hours and dumped the body 20 kilometres away in Oaklands Junction without checking if the three-year-old was alive….. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/boy-might-have-lived-if-given-first-aid-20100308-psqd.html
I grieve for my beautiful Gurshan, says mother of dead toddler http://www.news.com.au/national/i-grieve-for-my-beautiful-gurshan-says-mother-of-dead-toddler/story-e6frfkvr-1225838451833 (PIC)
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