Speaking to SBS today, Ms Bhathal said if the attacker had been Indian, it would have been linked to terrorism even before knowing the facts.
Queensland Police has declined to comment on Greens politician Alex Bhathal’s criticism of the force for making a "blanket statement" about the killing of Manmeet Alisher being a "random act".
Ms. Bhathal, while addressing a gathering of the Indian community in Melbourne on Tuesday said the police had announced that the attack wasn’t racial even before the case was brought before a court.
She questioned why the police had to make the statement when the investigation had just begun.
"We have a police spokesperson very shortly after the incident occurred coming out and making a blanket statement that there is no racial element involved in this attack. So what really I am questioning is why did that spokesperson feel the need to come out and say that so quickly. And I am also questioning the validity of a statement like that,” said Ms. Bhathal.
Ms. Bhathal said this was not an isolated incident.
“We are all part of a society in which there are often attacks on people and some of these attacks are racially motivated. We know that from the research.”
She said some members of the community feel a sense of injustice due to this statement by the police.
“What I believe this has done in this case is to alarm some people in the South Asian-Australian community to feel that perhaps there will be some kind of miscarriage of the course of justice,” Ms. Bhathal added.
She said that if the perpetrator had been an Indian, there would have been no statement that it was a random attack.
“We know that it would have been tagged into a broader context of terrorism regardless of the facts,” she told the gathering on Tuesday.
“There is a systemic discrimination built into our justice system in Australia. I think the very high rate of incarceration of aboriginal men, in particular, is an indication. That’s a very clear evidence of that,” she told SBS Punjabi.
Ms. Bhathal says she can’t comment if the attack on Manmeet Alisher was racially motivated.
“I can’t say. And that’s exactly my point that no one will know. Maybe some of the investigators will have a clearer idea now once you are in communication with the alleged attacker.”
However she has sought to reassure the community that justice will be done in this case.
When contacted by SBS Punjabi for a comment, a spokesperson for the Queensland Police department said that police officers in their media conferences had stated that “there was no evidence of a racial motivation to the attack”.
The spokesperson refused a further comment citing the matter was before the courts.
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