Australian police refuses to release details of attacks on Indians

Overland refused to release the statistics on the grounds that they are "subjective and open to interpretation".

He said information about a victim's race was based on a subjective assessment of their appearance - and Indians were included in the broad category of "south Asian appearance". Such a category could also include those from countries other than India such as Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he said.

"The problem with putting the data out there is that it will be misunderstood and we see this all the time," he was quoted as saying in the 'The Age' newspaper today.

Overland has earlier commented that Indians were over- represented as victims of robberies which was different than Victorian premier John Brumby who said "assaults on Indian students are under-represented in terms of population share".

Overland said his comments were based on police intelligence which relied on data that was "problematic".

Because information about crimes affecting a particular racial group was based on a subjective assessment of the victim's appearance the data was used only for internal purposes, he said.

Overland also said he regretted telling Indian students to "try and look as poor as you can" to avoid becoming a victim of crime.

Overland said his 'look poor' comments were made as a "flippant aside".

"I regret making the comment because I think it has been absolutely misrepresented and I regret having the media there or the discussion because that hadn't been fairly and accurately reported," he said.

Justifying his decision not to release the statistics that would leave many questions about the ongoing attack crisis unanswered, he said, "Why would I have come out and said Indians are over-represented if I could have fudged and said we don't know?"

Over 100 cases of attacks on Indians have been reported since the last year in Australia, mostly in Victoria, and the issue has been taken up by top representatives of the Indian government with their Australian counterparts.

Australia's Victoria University research paper providing new evidence that Indian students here feel racially targeted has been also delayed for over two months by Victoria police as it took time to vet its findings.

The police was given 60 days to review the report's findings, delaying its release from November last year to February 16.

Meanwhile, Brumby who supported Overland's remark on statistics release accused Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu of insulting Victorians, saying he was speaking with a "forked tongue" over his controversial declaration that assaults on Indian students showed Victoria had a racist problem.