The Australian police have retraced slain Indian student Nitin Garg’s final moments in a bid to nab his killers who stabbed him to death at West Foorscray, Melbourne, on January 2, while he was on his way to work.
Victorian homicide squad detectives returned to Yarraville to retrace the 21-year-old’s last steps. Garg, a permanent Australian resident, staggered into the outlet with stab wounds before collapsing.
On Saturday, a man wearing similar jacket as Garg retraced his movements walking from the Yarraville Railway Station and cut across CJ Cruickshank Park along a metre-wide dirt path on the eastern side of the park to the Hungry Jack’s restaurant to replicate Garg’s last known movements over a 24-minute period.
"It might just jog the memory of anyone (there) that evening over anything that may be significant,” the Herald Sun quoted Detective Senior Sergeant David Snare, as saying.
Snare described progress in the investigation as steady.
He appealed to anyone in the area of the park on January 2 between 9.30 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. to contact police.
However, Mr. Snare said it was inappropriate and premature to suggest the attack may have been racially motivated.
He said operational matters were behind the decision to wait three weeks before re-enacting Garg’s final moments.
Garg’s murder follows recent attacks on Indians in Melbourne that have put Australia’s multi-billion-dollar international student sector at risk.
Indian student enrolments have fallen 46 per cent across the country in recent months, while international student enrolments are down by 20 per cent overall.
