Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk met with family and friends of Manmeet Sharma, a Council bus driver who was killed after he was allegedly set afire by a 48-year-old man on Friday.
Winnerjit Singh Goldy, a family friend who is accompanying Manmeet's elder brother Amit in Australia said the Lord Mayor has assured them of establishing a memorial to honour Manmeet's memory.
“We requested the Lord Mayor on behalf of Manmeet’s family to establish a memorial to pay tribute to him. We requested to name a bus stop or a park or any junction after Manmeet. He has assured us of this,” Winnerjit told SBS Punjabi.
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He said Indian High Commissioner, Navdeep Suri also wrote a letter to the Lord Mayor to have a memorial in the area to honour Manmeet .
He said they also demanded that the case be taken to its logical conclusion.
Winnerjit said he and Manmeet’s brother, Amit were so far satisfied with the Queensland Police’s handling of the matter.
“So far we are satisfied with the way police investigation is going but we don’t know what conclusion they are going to arrive at. We had a meeting with senior officers yesterday. Though we were given some information, but they then said they would give us all the information after the investigation is concluded.”
Winnerjit said he wasn’t sure if it was a racially motivated attack.
“About the attack being racially motivated, initially we also thought it was so, but then it seemed it wasn’t. It’s still not clear. Manmeet had gone to that route for the first time. Now, what was his (attacker) state of mind, why he did it, that the police hasn’t made clear to us,” he said.
He said the community has very generously come forward to help with taking Manmeet’s body back to India. He thanked the community members for their support.
“The help and support we have received here, perhaps wouldn’t even have received there (in India). Indian high commissioner Mr. Suri told us yesterday that Air India has said they would take Manmeet’s body to India free of charge.”
“Everyone has helped us in whatever role they had, be it the community members, the high commission, even Australian government.”
Manmeet’s family in India is still unaware of his demise, Winnerjit said it’s going to be a difficult task to break the news to his elderly parents.
“We knew it would take 4-5 days to bring the body back to India and we didn’t want his parents who are heart patients to suffer for that long. They know something, so we are preparing them and will have to ultimately tell them,” he said.
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