Memorial service for dead Indian toddler Gurshan on Saturday

MELBOURNE - A memorial service will be held for dead Indian toddler Gurshan Singh Channa in Melbourne’s north on Saturday.

According to news.com.au, Gurshan’s parents, Harjit Singh Channa and Harpeet Kaur Channa will attend the service at Basilica Funerals in Thomastown at 10 a.m. (AEDT), the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria says.

“The family will soon be leaving for India with the body of Gurshan Singh Channa, ahead of a planned funeral in their home town in the state of Punjab in India,” federation president Vasan Srinivasan said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear when the couple intended to leave Australia.

The Coroner’s Court said it would not confirm when the boy’s body was released to the family for privacy reasons.

A council worker found Gurshan’s body in grass in Melbourne’s north on the evening of Thursday, March 4, six hours after he was reported missing from the Lalor house in which his family was staying.

Speaking on SBS Radio’s Punjabi program on Thursday, Mrs Channa said she was horrified by her boy’s death.

“How could the perpetrator not think that he was making such a small child the victim of such a big crime? How could he inflict such a painful death to my child? How would my child have borne that terrible death?” she said.

Gursewak Dhillon, 23, has been charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence.

He appeared briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday and has been remanded in custody to reappear on June 29.

An autopsy has not revealed the cause of death and police are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests. (ANI)