POLICE believe Indian toddler Gurshan Singh Channa may not have died if he had received even basic first aid rather than being left in the boot of a car.
The man charged over the death, Gursewak Dhillon, has admitted disposing of the body but denied deliberately injuring the child. He told police the boy was accidentally knocked unconscious on Thursday at the house in David Street, Lalor, where he had been staying.
Dhillon has claimed he panicked and put the unconscious boy in the boot of a car, drove for about three hours and dumped the body 20 kilometres away in Oaklands Junction without checking if the three-year-old was alive. An autopsy has failed to find a cause of death and there were no signs of life-threatening injuries.
Police say that if Dhillon's version of events is true, it is probable that Gurshan would have recovered from the accident if he had not been trapped in a car boot for hours. Police have seized the Commodore sedan Dhillon said he used on the day. Forensic experts will test the car to see if the boy could have suffocated in the boot or could have died through carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty exhaust.
The boy's mother, Harpreet Kaur Channa, only found her son had disappeared after she had a shower just after midday last Thursday. She initially believed the boy may have wandered into the street and been abducted by a stranger.
Dhillon has told police he had already left the house with the injured boy in the boot by the time Mrs Channa found her son was missing and police were called. The only other person in the house at the time was Sim Kaur, Dhillon's wife.
On Friday she told The Age Gurshan was crying because he was not allowed to go to the local library with his father, Harjit Singh.
''He was insisting to come as well, then the father refused and he started crying,'' she said. ''He stopped shouting and I thought, what happened?''
She is expected to be re-interviewed by police.
Dhillon has been charged with manslaughter due to criminal negligence. The 23-year-old was remanded to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning.
Dhillon, who has been living in Melbourne since June 2008, was one of at least 12 adults who shared the Lalor home.
An Indian community figure said yesterday that he had suspected Dhillon was involved in the disappearance of Gurshan as soon as he heard the boy was missing.
Speaking outside the Thomastown home where Gurshan's parents are staying, Narinder Sharma said his suspicion was so strong he called Crime Stoppers.
Mr Sharma said he made the call about 8.30pm, about 90 minutes after the body was found and 7½ hours after Gurshan was reported missing.
He said that a day before the disappearance he had been contacted by a woman who lived at the same house as Gurshan and Dhillon, because she suspected Dhillon was in Australia on a false passport.
He said he called Dhillon to confront him about the allegedly fake travel documents, an argument broke out and he was threatened with violence after telling Dhillon to ''stop this nonsense''.
It was enough to prompt Mr Sharma to call authorities when he realised the boy had disappeared.
Throughout yesterday, members of the Indian community based in Melbourne's northern suburbs visited the address where he had lived to pay tribute to Gurshan.
Speaking in Punjabi yesterday with a translator present, Gurshan's father said there had been no friction between his family and Dhillon leading up to Gurshan's death. Mr Singh revealed he and Dhillon had met on Sunday, but it is not clear if this was before or after charges were laid.
He also thanked police before declining to answer any questions.
The head of Craigieburn's Sikh gurdwara, or house of worship, Phulvinderjit Singh Grewal, said Gurshan's parents still planned to leave Melbourne permanently after they had organised the return of Gurshan's body to India.
He said the family were stunned that their former housemate had been charged.
''That's the big shock,'' he said. ''[But] the family feel a bit better now. It's still very tragic.''
Dhillon's arrest was given front-page coverage by major Indian newspapers yesterday and featured prominently on television news bulletins.
Many of the reports highlighted Dhillon's work as a part-time taxi driver and allegations that he put the unconscious child in the boot of his car and drove around for three hours before dumping him in a field.
''Indian cabbie charged for toddler's death in Oz'' said a front-page headline in the Mumbai newspaper Daily News and Analysis.
Asked whether the family in India was happy with the Australian police response, the boy's great-uncle Darshan Singh said: ''They are doing their job. We have no reason to be unhappy with them.''
Darshan Singh said the family in Punjab did not know the arrested man. ''I feel they [Gurshan's parents] got in touch with him in Australia only,'' he said.
With MATT WADE and ANDRA JACKSON
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