On the night of his death, he attended a party with fellow Indian fruit-pickers. The husband and wife, ages 23 and 20, were arrested in Sydney and have been charged with murder. A third suspect, a 25-year-old man, was arrested in Wagga Wagga, where Singh was living, and is also set to appear in court Friday to be charged with murder.
Singh arrived a year ago in Australia and was working in the same harvesting business as the couple charged with his murder. The arrests come after Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna met Australian counterpart Stephen Smith in London to urge more action over a series of attacks on Indians living in Australia.
Preneet Kaur, India's junior minister for Foreign Affairs, said Friday that the Indian government was discouraging students from going to Australia after the incidents of assaults. "We are hopeful that something will come out from the investigations that are taking place on the attacks on Indians," Kaur told reporters at Delhi's airport where she accompanied Ranjodh Singh's relatives to receive his body.
Last month there were demonstrations in Melbourne, home to the bulk of the 90,000 Indians studying in Australia, after Nitin Garg, a 21-year-old accounting graduate, was stabbed to death while walking to his job at a fast-food restaurant. Police investigating the killing said they had no reason to classify it as a hate crime, arguing that street crime disproportionately affects Indian students. Most Indian students pay for their educations - which they hope will qualify them for permanent residency visas - by working part-time in convenience stores, petrol stations and fast-food restaurants.