The man charged over the death of a Melbourne toddler has told his father in India that he panicked when he accidentally knocked the boy unconscious while opening a door.
Gursewak Dhillon, 23, has been charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter over the death of Gurshan Singh Channan, 3, but Dhillon's father said it was just an "innocent mistake", The Age reports.
Dhillon is alleged to have put the unconscious child in the boot of his car and then dumped the body near Melbourne airport last week.
His father Pragat Singh Dhillon has told the Indian media that the toddler had been standing behind the front door of the house when the accused opened it, knocking the boy unconscious.
"He then called out to Gurshan's mother, who was taking a bath, and his own wife, Simrat Kaur, who was in the kitchen at the time, but both couldn't hear his calls," he said in an interview with the Indian Express newspaper.
"He then put the child in his car to take him to hospital."
When his car had run out of petrol, Dhillon reportedly dumped the body out of fear of being charged with murder.
But his father insists he had "made an innocent mistake".
''He couldn't hurt anyone … how could he kill a child?" he said.
Dhillon explained the story to his father in a phone conversation several days ago.
Front page
RSS Feed