The Hindu : National : “My son was killed in Melbourne”

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“My son was killed in Melbourne”

Cricketer Harbhajan’s cousin says taxi driver killed his son and threw the body on rail track

. — Photo: PTI

Jagjit Singh and Surinder Kaur with the photo of Upkar Singh in Jalandhar on Saturday. Upkar Singh died in Australia recently

Jalandhar: Amid racial attacks on Indian students in Australia, cricketer Harbhajan Singh’s cousin on Saturday alleged that a taxi driver had killed his son in Melbourne and thrown the body on the rail track on May 7.

Jagjit Singh claimed that his son, Upkar Singh Babbal, 26, who went to Australia in 2004 to pursue a course in hospitality management, was killed in a racist attack.

Probe sought

Mr. Jagjit Singh based his version on the statements of Babbal’s friends in Australia. He demanded a probe by the Indian government into Babbal’s death, saying his son had informed him a number of times of “discrimination” against Indian students in Australia.

The body was sent by the Indian boys, who were known to Babbal, after the police refused to conduct a post-mortem, Mr. Jagjit Singh said.

“We were informed by the Australian police that Babbal had committed suicide,” Mr. Jagjit Singh said.

He sought to know about the entire incident but no one gave him proper information, he said.

Babbal’s body, which was cremated here on May 15, bore no injury mark except a scar near the eye, he said.

Mr. Jagjit Singh pointed out that had his son been hit by a train there would have been cuts and injury marks.

Asked why he did not raise the issue earlier, Mr. Jagjit Singh said that as Babbal was his only son, he was shocked at that time and only after the cremation did he get some clues from Babbal’s friends. — PTI

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