'How could he inflict such a painful death to my child', asks Gurshan Singh's mum

Melbourne, Mar 11: Three-year-old Indian toddler Gurshan Singh's mother has said that she was horrified by her boy's death and cannot understand how anyone could have hurt her little boy.

Speaking over the shocking incident, Harpreet Kaur Channa said: "How could the perpetrator not think that he was making such a small child the victim of such a big crime? How could he inflict such a painful death to my child? How would my child have borne that terrible death?"

"May God punish the person who perpetrated such a heinous crime," News.com.au quoted Harpreet, as saying.

"When I went into the shower, he was knocking on the door. Maybe he wanted to say, 'Mum don't go'," she added.

She said her son was a happy boy who loved Melbourne, even though he was scheduled to leave Australia the weekend after he disappeared.

"Gurshan loved Melbourne. Whenever I asked him about India, he would say 'I want to stay here'. He got along so well with everyone at home (in Melbourne). He had called his grandmother (in India), just a few hours before he went missing that day," Harpreet said.

"He's close to my mother since he's stayed with them a lot in India, and he said on the phone 'I'm coming to India in an aeroplane soon," he added.

Harpreet further said she was numbed by the tragedy, but is thankful to her family and friends in Australia.

"You can well imagine what's going through a mother's mind who has just lost a child. I don't know how I feel, I can't even think about myself," she said.

Gurshan's body was found near Melbourne Airport last Thursday night, about 30 kilometers from where the toddler disappeared from a house in Lalor six hours earlier.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Gursewak Dhillon has been charged with the manslaughter of the Indian toddler through criminal negligence.

Police have successfully opposed bail, claiming that the taxi driver was a flight risk.

Dhillon, who has a wife in Australia and a daughter in India, made a brief appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody to appear for a committal hearing on June 29.

According to the police, Dhillon, who shared the home with Gurshan's parents and others, placed the unconscious boy in the boot of his car, drove him around for at least three hours and dumped him at Oaklands Junction without checking to see if he was still alive.