Australia on Sunday indicated that the issue of a fugitive Indian student, wanted in a car accident case here, might be taken up with India during Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard visit to New Delhi next week.
Though there is no extradition treaty between Australia and India, Gillard has hinted that she plans to raise the case of 20-year old Puneet Puneet during her five-day trip.
"As a government, we take crime seriously and we want people to be brought to justice and of course, I will be prepared to say that to anyone," she was quoted as saying by 'The Age'.
Gillard will leave for India on August 30, ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd later this year, which will be his first to India since assuming office in 2007. Puneet is accused of running over his car on two pedestrians in Australia, killing one and injuring another.
He allegedly had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.165 as he drove home from a party in Nunawading on October 1 last year.
He was estimated to be driving at more than twice the speed limit when he lost control of his car on City Road in Southbank, mounting the footpath and killing Dean Hofstee, 19, and seriously injuring Clancy Coker, 20.
Puneet pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court earlier this year to culpable driving and was bailed to appear in the County Court last week but failed to turn up.
Police said Puneet fled Australia on June 12, just hours after reporting at his local police station.
They believe he boarded a flight to India that afternoon using another man's passport.
A 20-year old Indian student Sukhcharanjit Singh has been charged with providing Puneet with his passport.
