Indian man jailed for five years for killing toddler Gurshan in Melbourne

Melbourne, Feb 2(ANI): A 25-year-old Indian man has been jailed for a maximum of five years for killing three-year-old toddler Gurshan Singh Channa, whose body was found near Melbourne Airport in last March.

Gursewak Dhillion, a part-time taxi driver, had earlier pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to one count of manslaughter due to criminal negligence.

Justice Lex Lasry told Dhillon that he put his own welfare before that of Gurshan, and the boy might have lived if he had taken him to hospital.

The judge said that Dhillon was concerned that he would be blamed for injuring the child and he would be deported from Australia.

"To have spent some hours with the child in your car and to have paid no regard to the welfare of the child as opposed to concern for yourself makes this a very serious offence," News.com.au quoted Justice Lasry, as saying.

"The tragedy of this case is that, but for your conduct the death of the child, was in all likelihood, avoidable," he added.

The judge set a maximum term of five years.

Gurshan had arrived in Australia in January with his parents, and was due to return to India after father Harjit Singh failed to find work in Melbourne.

He went missing on March 4 when his mother was in the shower at their Lalor home. His body was later found on a roadside near Melbourne Airport, about 30 kilometers from Lalor.

Dhillon had initially admitted disposing of the body, but denied deliberately injuring the child.

He told police that the boy was accidentally knocked unconscious when he ran into a door at home.

Police said that Dhillon placed the boy unconscious, but alive in the boot of his car, drove him in the boot for at least three hours and dumped him at Oaklands Junction without checking to see if he was alive or dead. (ANI)