Shrestha, 30, is in an induced coma at Royal North Shore Hospital in the Australian city. “His situation is improving but he is still in an induced coma,” Bepin´s younger brother Bipul told myrepublica.com. Bepin´s father Bishnu Charan and mother are making arrangements to fly to Sydney within this week. [break]
“We heard of the incident only on Wednesday when our cousin called from Sydney,” Bipul revealed. His further condition would be known once the doctors bring him out of the induced coma in a couple of days, a close friend of Bepin said. “The hospital has only allowed Bepin´s cousin to visit him,” the friend added.
Bepin was attacked at around 4:30 am when he was on way to his work. The police said two youths -- Melenga Kanongataa, 19 and another unnamed 17-year old Tongan-- beat him to the ground, punching his head and body, and stomped him when they reached the spot.
He has fractures on his cheeks and eye sockets. His brain was bleeding when the police took him to the hospital, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“Bepin got off from the bus at the station (Dee Why bus stop). The youths were thrown out of the bus at the station by the conductor after trouble inside the bus and they must have vented their ire on Bepin,” Bepin´s friend quoted father Bishnu Charan as saying.
The version of Bepin´s father is in line with a report on The Manly Daily news which quoted the Northern Beaches police as saying that two men, aged 31 and 39, have come forward and told police they were also assaulted at Dee Why bus station at around 4:40 that fateful morning.
Police say the 17-year-old and an accomplice, who attacked Bepin, demanded the men´s wallets and then assaulted them. During the alleged assault the L90 bus arrived and the two alleged victims boarded the bus to escape.
Police believe Bepin may have got off the bus that the men boarded. “At that time we believe the two alleged offenders turned their attention to the Nepali man,” The Manly Daily quoted the police as saying.
Although the two men who boarded the bus are not believed to have witnessed the assault on Bepin, they reported the matter after reading reports about the attack, The Manly Daily further said.
Bepin from Bauddha, Kathmandu -- his family currently resides in Chabahil-- has been staying in Australia for the past 15 months to study accountancy at Raffles College.
According to the The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Bepin woke up before dawn each morning to wash down the tables and chairs at Dee Why Fresh Markets in Oaks Ave before leaving for his college. In the afternoon he was back to clean the butcher shop before moving on to a pizza shop that closed down at 10.30 each night.
The assault on Bepin comes at a time when racial attacks against Indians, particularly students, are growing. The Australian government denies the attacks are racial in nature.
Currently, there are nearly 17,000 Nepalis in Australia, most of them students in the country´s colleges and universities.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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