Melbourne:
In a first, two of the three men arrested for attacking an Indian student on a moving bus in Australia's Victoria state were today charged with inciting racial hatred. They are set to face the Frankston Magistrates Court on September 1 on the serious racial vilification charges. The three suspects were arrested after 22-year-old Rajan Kumar Katkam was assaulted on a bus travelling towards Portsea on February 6. The accused also threw chicken pieces at him.
Katkam, who arrived here in 2008 to pursue a course in Graphics, had filed a case with the office of Victims of Crime following the incident which forced him to defer his studies.
Two of the suspects have received summons to appear before the court on September 1, while the third man is expected to be charged over the incident "in the near future," police said.
The two have been charged with intentionally causing injury, unlawful assault, assault in company, offensive language and inciting racial hatred.
Katkam expressed happiness over the handling of the case by the Victorian police. "I'm happy at the outcome and I hope my case will send some message to the racist elements in the country. It's not good to be racist as we come with lot of expectations and want to contribute to this country," he said at a media conference.
The "racist elements" should not do such a thing in a multi-cultural society like Australia, Katkam said. A Victoria police spokeswoman said she hoped the charges "would send a strong message to the community that this behaviour will not be tolerated".
"This is the first time that charges of this nature have been put before the courts," she said.
Police commissioner Simon Overland said police needed the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions before proceedings.
"You've ultimately got to prove the charge... to the criminal standard, which is a pretty high standard," the top cop told ABC Radio.
"We obviously feel that we have enough evidence. The director agreed with that and these matters will now proceed through court. These people are innocent until proven guilty but they will face those charges and have to defend them," he said.
Overland said if a victim's race is proved to be a factor in a crime, harsher penalties would apply.
"There have been changes made to the Sentencing Act that make that (racial charges) an aggravating factor that magistrates and judges need to take into account in sentencing," he said. "If it's proven I would expect that it would add to the sentence that's imposed."
According to Katkam, he was travelling on a bus to Rye from Frankston at 2.30 pm (local time) when the three men who were apparently drunk started harassing him. He said that one of the men first started hitting him while the others threw chicken pieces at him.
Katkam, who is returning home next month due to some health issues which he claimed had occurred soon after the incident, said "they (attackers) said that black people want to be equal and that's why they are getting bashed."
The case was filed immediately and it is believed that video footage of the incident had been received by the Victoria police.
"The ordeal went on for 45 minutes and no one came to my rescue except one old lady who was kind enough to get up and asked those boys to stop it," Katkam said.
The victim was thankful to the white lady who tried to help him but was asked to keep her mouth shut.