Indian national pleads guilty to student's brutal rape in Melbourne - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A 27-year old Indian national has pleaded guilty to abduction, rape and causing injury to a university student in Melbourne. The Victorian County Court on Thursday heard that the attack involving Harjot Hundal Singh occurred near Springvale station in Melbourne at about 11p.m. on June 18 last year. Singh had dragged the woman into his windowless van, tied her hands and told her to stop shouting or he would kill her with a knife. He also punched the woman, and grabbed her around the throat before raping her. Two days after being interviewed by police about the attack, Singh was arrested at Melbourne Airport with a one-way ticket to India. Prosecutor Ray Gibson described the attack as "abhorrent", and called for Singh to be jailed for between 12 and 14-and-a-half years with a non-parole period of at least nine years. "It is every woman's nightmare or person's nightmare to be alone at night, dragged off the street, taken from behind ... locked in a windowless van and raped," News.com.au quoted Gibson, as saying. The 27-year-old had been living in Melbourne with his wife who was a student. He is likely to be deported when his sentence ends, the court heard. Judge Marilyn Harbison will sentence Singh, who has been in custody since he was arrested at the airport, on August 27.