Australian police vow to nab student who fled to India
August 21st, 2009 - 1:04 pm ICT by IANSMelbourne, Aug 21 (IANS) Australian police are determined to track down an Indian student who ran over a teenager and later fled to India on a false passport. A police official stressed “we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to bring him back”.
Puneet had crashed his car into Gold Coast student Dean Hofstee, 19, in central Melbourne last October. He was reportedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
He was to face the Victorian County Court Thursday after pleading guilty to culpable driving, despite blaming the crash on a cat, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
But Puneet, 19, of Newport failed to turn up and Judge Lisa Hannan issued a warrant for his arrest.
“Police believe Puneet left Australia on the passport of fellow Indian student Sukhcharanjit Singh, on a flight to New Delhi June 12, three hours after reporting for bail,” the report stated.
Until that date, Puneet had reported for bail twice a week and had surrendered his passport to authorities.
Inspector Richard Watkins of the Major Collisions unit said police became aware Puneet had left Australia about three weeks ago.
“We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to bring him back,” he was quoted as saying.
Police will make inquiries based on Puneet’s student visa application.
“We had some information about where he came from in India specifically.
“I’m confident that through international policing agencies and the Indian police and our government that we should be able to track him down.
“We’ll continue until we find him.”
Hofstee’s father Peter, who had come from Queensland for the hearing Thursday, said outside court it was extremely disappointing.
“He’s in India, I think he’s in India,” Hofstee was quoted as saying.
“I would certainly hope the Australian and Indian authorities cooperate to bring him back.
“We obviously indicated we were coming down (for the plea hearing), then they (prosecutors) came back to us to say that he had not been reporting in and they didn’t know where he was.
“Subsequent investigations have found that he’s flown out of the country.”
Puneet, who was a learner driver at the time of the crash, had pleaded guilty to culpable driving in February.
Police estimate he was travelling at almost 150km/h when he lost control in the 60km/h zone.
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Tags: australian police, central melbourne, collisions, culpable driving, daily telegraph, driving under the influence, driving under the influence of alcohol, false passport, gold coast, hannan, indian authorities, indian police, New Delhi, plea, police official, police vow, prosecutors, richard watkins, student visa application, victorian county court
