Parents seek govt help to get Ranjodh’s body home

A phone call from Australian Police at 4 a.m. on Wednesday dashed any hopes that the Singh family had of their son’s survival.

The police confirmed that the part-burnt body found lying by the roadside in Griffith, New South Wales, on December 29 is that of management student Ranjodh.

His family has now demanded that the government arrange to bring Ranjodh’s body back for the last rites.

The caller, who identified himself as detective Arun Chopra, told Ranjodh’s younger brother Satnam that fingerprints from articles used by Ranjodh matched those of the body. With the identification process complete, the Australian consulate team, which was to visit the family to take blood samples for a DNA match, will not visit them now, they have been informed.

On December 27, the family got information that Ranjodh had gone missing from Griffith. His partially burnt body was recovered on December 29 and the family got news of his death on December 31.

His mother Paramjit Kaur is inconsolable. “I want to see my son’s body one last time to believe that he is dead,” she said on Wednesday. His father Gurmail Singh has gone silent.

Satnam, who was attending to relatives and journalists, said the district administration had not come forward to offer condolences.

Satnam said the Australian Police had also questioned Sarita, a distant aunt of theirs, on whose complaint a murder case had been registered.

Sarita hails from Chandigarh and has been living in Australia for over eight years now. She is in touch with the family and is interacting with the authorities in Australia, said Satnam.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs had issued an advisory cautioning Indian students studying in Australia.