Victoria's Police Association has reacted angrily to a cartoon in an Indian newspaper depicting one of the state's officers as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Delhi Mail Today newspaper published the cartoon in response to the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg in Melbourne last weekend.

The cartoon shows a person in a Ku Klux Klan hood wearing a police badge, with a caption that reads: "We Are Yet To Ascertain The Nature Of The Crime."

The Indian media has suggested the attack may have been racially motivated, but Melbourne police say there's no evidence of that.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies says it is highly offensive to suggest police are not properly investigating the murder.

"To say that our detectives are going slow on this, or for some reason trying to protect somebody, is incredibly offensive and wrong," he said.

"It's based on nothing but obviously a slow news day in Delhi.

"The identity of the offender from the homicide in Footscray isn't even known at this stage, so we don't even know what nationality the offender is.

"To say it's a race-based crime is not only premature, but stupid."

The Police Minister, Bob Cameron, has added his voice to the condemnation of the cartoon.

"This is just terrible," Mr Cameron said.

"Victoria Police is a very tolerant organisation and Victoria is a very tolerant state and to suggest that Victoria Police is racist is just plain wrong and it's offensive to the good police we have here in Victoria.

"It just doesn't help anyone at all to have people from the sidelines throwing bricks," he said.

"We've got a good police force and we should let our police force go about their policing business in a sensible and a calm way."