 Sri Lankan authorities are seeking a Markham man who they alleged helped orchestrate an attack on Nagalingam Subramaniam, the founder of a Scarborough temple in 2023. |
For months after his father was beaten to near death by a group of armed assailants while visiting his home village in Sri Lanka, Ganesh Subramaniam was left asking himself: who would do such a thing, and why?
It took more than a year for Sri Lankan authorities to offer a shocking theory: the attack on Ganesh’s father — who founded the Sri Ayyappan Hindu Temple in Scarborough more than 40 years ago — was allegedly ordered on Canadian soil, by the man serving as the temple’s president, the Toronto Star newspaper reported.
After repeatedly failing to appear in a Jaffna court, Kandiah was charged with aiding and abetting an attempted murder and robbery in December, the documents state.
Police in Jaffna have been given a final opportunity to produce Kandiah in court on Tuesday, according to Ganesh, who’s been advocating for his parents’ case since 2023. If he fails to appear, a lack of an extradition treaty between the two countries could see the Sri Lankan court proceed with the prosecution in his absence.
“I know he will not be extradited,” Ganesh told the Star in December. “But I at least want them to recognize that there is a man accused of attempted murder, who is living here in peace.”
Kandiah did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada told the Star the agency was “aware of the legal proceedings in Sri Lanka involving a Canadian citizen,” but declined to provide further comment while the case remained before the courts.
“Consular officials have been in communication with the relevant authorities,” spokesperson Samantha Lafleur told the Star. “Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”
Couple left bloodied, beaten
When Ganesh’s mother called to tell him that she and his father, both in their 70s, had been robbed weeks into a trip to India and Sri Lanka, he thought she must be joking. But as his mother continued to detail the incident, the severity of the attack became clear.
The intruders, armed with swords and wooden sticks, made their way into the home just after midnight on Feb. 24, 2023. Police say they tied the couple by their hands and feet and began to question them about their lives back in Toronto.
“When my mom said that, that the intruders were asking these questions, that’s when I realized this wasn’t something random, that my parents had been targeted specifically while visiting their village,” Ganesh said.
The intruders fled the property, leaving Subramanian brutally beaten and lying in a pool of his own blood.
“When she explained that he was not waking up, that image of him just lying there, it shattered me,” Ganesh said.
Subramaniam was transferred by boat to the nearest hospital in Jaffna. He suffered a fractured nose, deep cuts to his eyes and cheeks, and shattered bones in his leg, leaving him unable to stand or walk.
A few days later, with the assistance of the High Commission in Canada, he was flown back to Toronto, where he spent more than six months recovering in Sunnybrook Hospital.
A statement released by the temple’s board of directors — which, at the time, included Kandiah — condemned the “brutal and violent attack.”
After moving to Canada in the 1980s, Ganesh’s father founded the Sri Ayyappa Samajam Of Ontario, on Middlefield Road. There, he served as the temple Guruswamy, or spiritual guide, for more than two decades, offering advice to more than 100,000 devotees over the years.
“This planned attack (...) is really heartbreaking among the management, staff and devotees of Sri Ayyappa Samajam of Ontario,” the board of directors wrote. “All of us are deeply worried and shocked.”
“We didn’t get who would want our father hurt,” Ganesh said. “Or why.”
The temple’s board called on both countries’ governments to probe the attack.
For more than six months, the Subramaniam family remained in the dark. It was only with the arrests of the four Sri Lankan nationals, alleged to have carried out the attack, that investigators began to tie the case back to the GTA.
According to Sri Lankan investigators, a cellphone seized from one of the accused contained a series of money transfers from a phone number associated with Kandiah, along with discussions of Subramaniam’s whereabouts on the day of the attack.
It was a shock to the Subramaniam family, who had known Kandiah through the temple’s community for years. Kandiah and Subramaniam had their political differences, and at times disagreed over operations of the temple, Ganesh said, “but we never expected it could go to such an extreme.”
“Everybody’s hurt,” Ganesh said. “It’s hard for people to process.”
After news that an arrest warrant had been issued in his name back home, Kandiah stepped down as temple president in 2024. The Star reached out to the current president for a statement, but did not receive a response.
Why Canadian police are not involved
Since 2023, Ganesh says he has spent thousands of dollars travelling to Sri Lanka and hiring lawyers to observe the court hearings for those accused of attacking his parents.
He reported the situation to Toronto police shortly after Sri Lanka issued the warrant for Kandiah’s arrest. In correspondence shared with the Star, a detective told Ganesh that the service would not probe the matter as they “do not undertake international investigations.”
Ganesh was told to increase security at his home, he says, and hasn’t heard from the service since.
“The thing is that the accused in question is a Canadian citizen, the victims are Canadian citizens and these alleged instructions were apparently made in Canada,” he said.
When asked what role, if any, Toronto police would play in the case, spokesperson Nadine Ramadan said she could not provide specific details, but highlighted that evidence-gathering becomes more complex in cases that cross jurisdictional boundaries, “as they require collaboration with federal and international partners.”
“I can’t speculate what type of offence this could be investigated as,” Ramadan told the Star. “But if investigators uncover additional evidence that supports laying charges, they will proceed accordingly.”
If Kandiah fails to appear on Tuesday, Ganesh says he’s planning a final push to have the Sri Lankan court issue an Interpol notice, which would expand the ability of both countries to share critical information about the case.
“We just want to see this person have to answer for these allegations,” he said. “And so far, that’s not happened.” (Courtesy- The Toronto Star)
Post a Comment