Indian toddler found dead in Oz, autopsy inconclusive

Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner Sir Ken Jones said: "There is no visible signs of the cause of death."

Jones said the boy's parents were being interrogated.

"At the moment we're desperate for witnesses to come forward. We're pretty convinced there's people out there that may have seen something," he said.

He said police have not yet determined if the boy's death was an opportunistic crime or something else.

"We just don't know at this time and I don't want to speculate and try to keep people focused on the facts as we know them," he said.

"It's clear that this wasn't death from natural causes, but we don't yet have a 100 per cent conclusion on what the actual cause of death was."

Gurshan was in Australia on holiday with his family and was due to return to India later this week. His body was found around 30 kms away from his residence yesterday.

Victorian state police said the toddler's body was found by a council worker in long grass.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the toddler's death, calling it a "brutal thing to happen". Police were treating the incident as a "worst case" and have deployed all available resources to investigate the suspected homicide.

Reacting to the incident, Victorian premier John Brumby said: "This is an unthinkable tragedy. My heart goes out to the young boy's family in what must be such a terrible time. Police will do everything in their power to establish who is responsible and bring them to justice."

Jones said the boy's body was found fully clothed in blue jeans and a grey top. But he said he could not say how he died. "We are not ruling anything in or anything out."
The toddler's mother Harpreet Kaur, who is studying in Australia, rang police after he had been missing for 45 minutes, prompting a massive search involving more than 15 police units, the dog squad and air wing.

Members of the Indian community have expressed shock over the death of toddler.
Expressing shock, Primus chief Ravi Bhatia said, "The killing of baby Gurshan is a heinous crime and a very sad matter and our thoughts are with the family."

Commenting on the latest incident, Gautam Gupta of FISA (Federation of Indian Students of Australia) stressed on the need to look into the tragedy rather than focusing on how the incident will affect the Indo-Australian ties.

Indian consul general in Melbourne Anita Nayar also expressed her shock and grief over the incident.

The parents of the boy had arrived in Australia from India on January 9, planning to stay. However, they decided to leave next week as the father could not get work.