The tragic death of Indian-origin bus driver Manmeet Alisher was not racially motivated, the office of Queensland Premier has said.
A well-known figure in Australia’s Punjabi community, 29-year-old Manmeet was killed while he was driving a city council bus in Brisbane on 28th October.
48-year-old Anthony O’Donohue was arrested at the scene and was charged with murder and multiple attempted murders.
Terming the alleged murder ‘racially motivated’, Secretary of National Sikh Council of Australia- Bawa Singh Jagdev claled for a thorough investigation in his email to Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, last month.
The premier’s office told Mr Jagdev on Wednesday that the investigators have found Manmeet’s ‘tragic death’ wasn’t racially motivated.
“Without disclosing the evidence that is yet to go before the court, or jeopardise further investigations or court proceedings, early investigations undertaken by a major task force of investigators identified this traffic death was not racially motivated,” Premier’s Deputy Chief of Staff Mark Biddulph said.
He further said the investigation in the case was ongoing and the detectives continue to consider all circumstances surrounding the incident in preparing a brief of evidence to present before the court.
Earlier, days after Manmeet's death, Queensland health minister Cameron Dick said the accused killer Anthony O’Donohue was a mental patient and had received public mental health services.
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