India student, Tosha Thakkar, raped, killed in Australia

An Indian student was raped and killed in northwestern Sydney last week allegedly by a storeman, police said on Monday after her body was found in a suitcase.

According to The Age quoting police, Indian student Tosha Thakkar, 24, was murdered by a “predator who waited until their housemate was away to sexually assault and kill her.”

Stani-Reginald, from Croydon, was arrested late on Friday night and charged with murder.

Nineteen-year-old Storeman Daniel Stani-Reginald who has been charged with raping and murdering Thakkar last week, chose not to appear in court, the report said.

Tosha’s body was found on Friday morning by contractors working on routine maintenance of an oil pipeline in a canal running behind Meadowbank Park in north-western Sydney. It had been stuffed into a large, black, cloth suitcase, the Age report said.

“We are very upset of course and are just waiting to get justice as soon as possible,” a friend of the victim said outside court, the report in The Age said.

“She was very nice, the type that got along with everybody and she didn’t deserve this, such a painful death,” the friend said.

Detective Chief Inspector Pamela Young said the victim was a “respectful young woman”.

“She did not deserve this at all. She did nothing whatsoever to contribute to what happened to her,” she told Australian media.

Attacks on Indians roiled Australia last year, but the alleged racial crimes had come down of late. The girl’s rape and murder, however, left everyone shocked as the fear revisited the Indian diaspora.