Court rejects bail plea of female suspect who murdered Indian businessman

A court in Australia Thursday rejected the bail application of a 27-year-old woman who is one of two people accused of murdering an Indian-origin businessman.

Melissa Shaw, remanded in custody till Nov 5 for the murder of Shyam Dhody, had moved the bail application. But the Supreme Court in Brisbane rejected it, the media reported.

Dhody, 37, was shot dead July 5 in his bed at his home at Gilston, a suburb of Gold Coast city in Australia’s Queensland state.

Shaw was reportedly Dhody’s partner and had claimed that she found his body after she returned from work.

However, Australian police arrested Shaw and her lover Adam Gooley, a 32-year-old fruit shop worker, last month on charges of committing the crime.

Shaw and Gooley have also been charged with attempting to murder Dhody outside his previous home March 26 this year when he was shot at 10 times with a .22 rifle, the Herald Sun reported.

After Thursday’s hearing, judge Jean Dalton said that although evidence against Shaw was circumstantial, that did not mean the case was weak and refused bail on the ground that she could flee after getting bail.

She faces the prospect of life imprisonment.