‘I pleaded with him to return’: father seeks govt help after Karnataka man shot dead in Toronto mall parking

The police have said it is still unclear whether it was a targeted shooting or a random shooting. While no arrests have been made till now, the police have sought information from the public.

A family member said Chandan’s uncle initially received a phone call from Canada about the incident, but could not understand it because the caller spoke English. Later, an Indian called and informed them about Chandan’s death.

Chandan’s father, Nandan Kumar, who lives in Nelamangala, said his son shifted to Canada six years ago. “I pleaded with him to return, but he was prolonging it. He had a good friend circle there and liked living there. He was scheduled to visit in April,” he said.

“I cannot go to Canada. I request that the Indian government bring his body to India. We want to perform his final rites,” he added.

Chandan studied at Saptagiri College of Engineering in Bengaluru.

According to sources, Kumar worked with a private firm and was active in the Kannadiga community in Canada. “He was very active in organising pro-Kannada events,” the source said.

The Toronto Star quoted Dhanush Manivannan, who works at a cellphone kiosk close to the entrance where the shooting happened, as saying that he didn’t notice anything wrong until he saw the police storming into the mall.

“The mall was pretty busy at that time; there were a lot of people around, but none of us heard anything. We did not know this was a crime scene until they started taping the doors off,” he said.

Manivannan said he was asked to take an officer to the mall’s security office to check the CCTV footage. He said the officer told him that the suspects hadn’t entered the mall.