THE Indian government and student groups have backed away from claims that the murder of Nitin Garg was racially motivated, as police continued to comb a park in Melbourne's west for evidence that may lead them to the killer.
A second sweep of Yarraville's Cruickshank Park, where Garg was fatally stabbed on Saturday night as he was walking to work at a nearby fast-food restaurant, yesterday recovered two "items of interest" but no murder weapon.
India's deputy high commissioner in Canberra, V.K. Sharma, said Indian diplomatic officials had conveyed New Delhi's concern about the latest attack on an Australian-based national to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Mr Sharma said India had asked Australia to do all it could to prevent assaults on Indians and bring the culprits of Saturday's attack to justice. But he said "nobody knows" if attacks on Indians were racially motivated.
When asked whether the Indian government believed Garg's murder could have been race-related, Mr Sharma replied: "That, we can't say anything until the police come out with the facts."
Gautam Gupta, secretary of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, agreed it would be "premature and inappropriate to draw conclusions about the tragedy".
The remark was in stark contrast to his earlier claim that Garg's wallet and phone being left untouched by his assailant was evidence of a hate crime.
However, on an ABC website Mr Gupta maintained that racism in Australia was "still alive and being reborn in a new generation". "What is clear to those of us dealing at the coalface of this problem is that a section of Australia has embraced curry-bashing and that institutional racism in the police force and the media and political elites means Australia is ill-equipped to deal with the problem in an open, honest manner," he wrote.
Police have not ruled out racism as a motive but say there is no evidence to support this.
Anger at Garg's death was keenly felt at the Newport house he shared with seven other Indians. One of his housemates, Parminder Singh, likened the murderer to terrorists.
"They are not human beings. They are like animals, they are like terrorists because they are killing innocent people for nothing," he told the Nine Network's A Current Affair.
The previous night, Mr Singh and Garg's best friend, Sandeep Sandeep, took part in a candlelight vigil for Garg at the scene of his death. Mr Sandeep said Garg was not rostered to work on Saturday night but had agreed to cover the shift of a friend.
The investigation into Garg's death continued as NSW homicide detectives took over the case of a 25-year-old Indian found dead with a badly burnt face on the side of a road south of Griffith.
As The Australian revealed yesterday, the man is believed to be Ranjodh Singh, the son of Gurmail Singh, from Nabha, Punjab, the same home state as Garg.
Indian consul-general Amit Dasgupta said consular staff had spoken to the man's family in Punjab, who were waiting for the results of DNA-testing to confirm the body was their son.
"It is a tragic thing and I think everyone would like to resolve this by finding who the culprits are," Mr Dasgupta said. The body was found eight days ago.