An Indian man who said he was set on fire by a group of men in Australia, following a spate of attacks on foreign students, was Monday spared jail after admitting to making the claim up.
Jaspreet Singh, 28, pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to making a false report to police over the January incident in which he was left with burns to 30 percent of his body.
Singh had originally told police he had been attacked by four men who poured petrol on him and set him alight. It later emerged he had burned himself after attempting to torch his own car to claim the insurance.
“It’s a very serious and cynical decision you’ve made in the circumstances,” Magistrate Felicity Broughton said, according to the Australian Associated Press. Broughton described Singh’s actions as premeditated and serious, particularly as they came one week after an Indian national was stabbed to death in Melbourne.
But she suspended the eight-month jail term for Singh, who pleaded guilty to criminal damage by arson, making a false report to police and attempting to obtain property by deception. The magistrate said she took into account his guilty plea and was satisfied that he would not re-offend.
Muggings and beatings of Indian students in Australia prompted street protests last year, before 21-year-old Punjab man Nitin Garg was murdered as he walked to work at a Melbourne burger restaurant in January. Singh suffered burns to his arms, feet, neck and face and he spent a month recovering in hospital.
Sydney, May 3, 2010 (AFP)
