New Delhi/Sydney: New South Wales Premier Mike Baird assured India that the fatal attack on an Indian woman IT professional in a Sydney suburb is being probed by police with utmost seriousness even as a special detective squad was formed to pursue the investigations.
Describing the attack on 41-year-old Prabha Arun Kumar as a "sad event", the ministry of external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the assurance was given by Baird during a telephonic conversation with Sanjay Sudhir, consul general of India in Sydney. India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said she was pained to know about the murder and that she was in constant touch with India's consulate in Sydney which is providing all help.
Australian police release CCTV footage
Australian police released the CCTV footage of Prabha walking from a train station just before she was fatally stabbed and appealed to people for information to crack the baffling case. The New South Wales police launched a probe following the stabbing of Prabha, who was on the phone with her husband in India, when the "horrific" attack happened on Saturday in Westmead, a suburb of Sydney.
Police said the emergency services responded to reports of a seriously injured woman on a public walkway between Argyle Street, Parramatta, and Amos Street, Westmead, on Saturday. Ambulance Paramedics treated the woman at the scene before transporting her to Westmead Hospital, where she died on Sunday.
Confirming her identity, the police statement said, it was believed that Prabha got off a train at Parramatta Railway Station about 9 pm, before walking along Argyle Street and turning left onto the walkway. Police believe she was attacked while on the walkway.
Prabha was employed with Bengaluru-based tech firm MindTree. She was on phone with her husband who lives Bengaluru with their 10-year-old daughter, when she was stabbed. Chillingly, the husband heard her tell him "I think I've been stabbed", before she collapsed in a pool of blood. The line then went dead.
