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An Indian, who had claimed to have been set ablaze by assailants in Melbourne, had faked the incident for seeking insurance benefits to overcome his financial woes, Australian police alleged on Wednesday.
Jaspreet Singh, 29, of Essendon area in Melbourne's north, who reported the attack on January 8 after sustaining 15 per cent burn injuries, was on Wednesday charged with making a false report to police with a view to gaining financial advantage.
At an out-of-sessions hearing, police said Singh had purchased an opaque plastic container and filled it with nearly 16 litres of petrol a day before he torched his seven-year old car to claim insurance money, Sky News TV said.
The container and other evidence were found at his home when he was arrested on Tuesday, they said before the bail justice.
"Police inquiries have led us to believe that Singh is in some financial difficulty and that he intended to sell his car but instead stood to gain $9,750 from an insurance claim out of this particular incident," Detective Senior Constable Danielle O'Keefe told the hearing.
Singh, who is in Australia on his wife's student visa, had told the police that he was doused with petrol by some thugs and set alight as he parked his car near his home.
Singh was taken to the Alfred hospital with burns to his face, arms and hands.
According to Singh's account, he and his wife left a dinner party in Essendon between 1.30 am and 2 am and drove to their nearby home in Grice Crescent. He dropped his wife home and had gone to park his car when he was attacked.
Singh claimed that as he was getting out of the car, four men attacked him, pushing him back against the vehicle and pouring an unknown fluid on him. One of the men then ignited the fluid with a lighter before all the attackers fled.
O'Keefe said Singh suffered the burns while trying to torch his 2003 Ford Futura. She said arson chemists and hospital staff concluded that the damage to the car, Singh's clothes and his injuries were not consistent with his story.
"Police had obtained security footage depicting Singh buying a 15-litre opaque plastic container and 15.96 litres of petrol on the day before the attack," O'Keefe said.
However, Singh has denied the allegations. His wife has also been questioned about her knowledge of the incident. The January 8 incident came amid a spate of violent incidents against Indians, many of them students, in Australia in recent months.
Over 100 cases of attacks on Indians have been reported since the last year in Australia and top representatives of the Indian government have taken up the issue with their Australian counterparts.
Burns were still obvious on Singh's face and neck as he appeared in the court, and he wore pressure bandages on arms.
Through an interpreter, he told the hearing that he and his wife planned a holiday to India, leaving on Feb 20 and returning in late April to visit his child and family.
O'Keefe said while police did not oppose bail it has been noted that Singh was a potential flight risk.
He was granted bail with strict conditions banning him from contacting witnesses and attending points of international departure. He must report to police thrice a week and surrender his passport. He will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on March 15.
At the time of the incident, police Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Neil Smyth had described it as "a bit strange" and said there was no evidence it was racially motivated.
Meanwhile, Victorian Premier John Brumby was miffed with the Indian media and officials for what he called unbalanced reporting on Singh's case. Brumby said Indian media reports of such incidents had been unbalanced, according to AAP.
"I think I'll make a couple of comments and in a sense they go, as much as anything, to the way the Indian media and, to a lesser extent some representatives in the Indian government, portray these events," he said.
On the killing of Ranjodh Singh, whose body was found in a charred condition, in New South Wales, he also pointed out that the accused are Indians.
"I think the point needs to be made that the people who have been charged with that murder are both Indians... And we've had this case (Jaspreet), which attracted a lot of attention in India and police have charged an individual with setting fire to himself".
"So I hope that there is some balance to the debate, some balance to the reporting in India and certainly to date that balance hasn't been there," he said.