Father of attacked Indian student gets Australian visa

Hyderabad, May 29 (IANS) Tirthala Chidambar Rao Friday received an Australian visa for travelling to Melbourne to visit his son Sharavan Kumar, who was injured in an alleged racist attack by two youths, the family said.

Chidambar Rao and his brother received visas from the Australian High Commission and they are likely to leave for Melbourne early Saturday to see Shravan Kumar, who is battling for life at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after an alleged racial attack.

Shravan Kumar, a student of automobile engineering and hailing from Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, was attacked by two youths Sunday afternoon.

Chidambar is anxious to reach Melbourne and see his son as he has no detailed information about his condition. He was only informed that the assailants pierced a screwdriver into his son's brain through the right temple.

Shravan, 25, was among four students attacked by the Australian youths when they were partying. However, there are contradictory versions as to what provoked the attack.

While one version is that the local youths stormed the house of Indian students taking objection to a stereo being played at high volume, according to another version the Australians, who were apparently drunk, got angry and resorted to violence when the Indian youths did not allow them to join the party.

Shravan, who is pursuing automobile electrical engineering diploma in Cambridge International College in Melbourne, suffered a serious head injury and was admitted to the hospital while his friends Kiran, Subhash and Sandeep were discharged after treatment on Wednesday.

Chidambar Rao, a farmer-cum-small trader, and his brother obtained passports on Wednesday.

However, they have not received any assistance from the central or state government. He was trying to approach Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for help but was told that he was on a pilgrimage to Israel.

The Australian High Commission contacted Chidambar Rao and arranged visas for him and his brother to facilitate their travel to Melbourne.

Shravan's mother Prameela is in a state of shock in Mucherla village, 272 km from here. She spoke to him about a week ago.

His family members said they received the information that the doctors were not sure if he would survive.

Shravan had gone to Australia one-and-half-years ago. While two of his friends are pursuing diplomas in trade, another is doing diploma in cookery. All the four share an apartment in Hadfield Springs. He was scheduled to return to India after completing his course in four months.