'It Was Hate Crime': Father Of Kartik Vasudev, Student Killed In Canada, Wants Indian Govt's Help To Get Justice
Kartik Vasudev was shot dead in Toronto on April 7 outside a subway station in Toronto. He had gone there to study MBA. His father Jitesh Vasudev has started a petition on change.org seeking justice.
New Delhi: Jitesh Vasudev, the father of 21-year-old management student Kartik Vasudev who was shot dead at a subway station in Canada's Toronto on April 7, is still looking for answers.
Two weeks since the killing, and one week since the arrest of the accused, the family is yet to know what was the motive.
Seeking justice, Vasudev has started a petition on change.org, looking for support as he demands that the central government interfere in the matter and get him the answers he is looking for.
Kartik was a student of Global Management at Toronto-based Seneca University. He also worked part-time at a Mexican restaurant.
Speaking to ABP Live, the bereaved father said he was sure his son's killing was a hate crime but the Canadian authorities are not looking at this angle.
Asked why he thinks it was a hate crime or a case of racism, Vasudev said the circumstances under which Kartik was killed make him believe that he had been targeted.
He questioned the statement issued by the Canadian authorities stating how it could be a "random act of violence" when the accused was carrying guns and a cache of arms was also recovered from him.
The accused, Richard Jonathan Edwin, a 39-year-old Toronto resident, allegedly also killed another “brown” person two days after Kartik's murder. This, Vasudev said, showed his aggression towards “brown people”.
Calling the incident “an act of terrorism”, he said if it wasn’t a hate crime he would want to understand the killer's motive. “Why only Kartik? He was the only person (at the subway station) who was shot at, so it has to be a hate crime,” he said.
In his petition, Vasudev mentioned that his son was shot eight times.
Asked if Kartik had faced racism earlier in Canada, or any other kinds of bias because of the colour of his skin, the grieving father told ABP Live that his son had moved to Canada only in January, and it had been snowing heavily there because of which he generally avoided going out and did not get to interact with people much.
Kartik took up the part-time restaurant job only 15 days before being his murder. Vasudev said his friends were mainly Indians so he never said anything about experiencing racism in the country.
'Indian government’s intervention will give importance to the case'
Jitesh Vasudev wants the Government of India to help him get justice. Asked what kind of help he is seeking from the government, he said he wants to be in the loop on every aspect of the murder investigation being conducted in Canada.
Desperate for answers about his son’s murder, Vasudev wants the Indian government to help his family financially to visit Canada, taking care of their accommodation and other requirements, so they could track if the probe is being done in a proper way. He said he needs to travel to Canada to attend the court hearings, and would want the government to help him with the travel expenses.
Vasudev urged the Indian government to interfere in the matter and put pressure on the Canadian government for a transparent investigation.
“Indian government’s intervention will give importance to the case and we will finally get justice,” he said, asking for maximum punishment for the killer.
Vasudev welled up as he said they need the government’s support because they can’t fight this battle alone,
He said he had tried to approach the government but has not got any response yet. He also said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar did not respond when he tweeted to him, seeking help.
Jaishankar had expressed condolences on Twitter two days after Kartik's death. Jitesh Vasudev had responded to his tweet, seeking help from him to get justice.
Vasudev had got an approval of Rs 30-lakh bank loan, and took Rs 15 lakh to send Kartik to Canada for education, mortgaging their house and ornaments.
He requested that the government waive the loan.
Canadian authorities did not contact the family immediately: Jitesh Vasudev
Talking about Kartik, Vasudev said they always believed he would make the family proud, and that he would take care of his younger brother Parth.
He said Kartik was a responsible elder brother to Parth, and would say the family shouldn’t worry about him since he would take care of him as soon as he gets a good job.
Asked how the Canadian authorities dealt with the family after Kartik's death, Vasudev told ABP Live that they did not get an immediate response.
Narrating the sequence of events, he said it was his roommates who first got in touch with the family, informing them that Kartik was missing. They started a search for him, calling up people who they thought he would be with. After a few hours, they saw a photo online related to the shootout outside the Sherburne subway station.
In the picture, they recognised his bag. The initial thought was Kartik might have fled the scene leaving the bag in the ruckus. When he wasn’t found anywhere, they enquired with the Canadian police, who confirmed around midnight that it was Kartik who was shot dead, Vasudev said.
Expressing anger at the Canadian authorities for not contacting them for 5-7 hours after the incident even though they had Kartik’s wallet and identification card, he said it seemed the police wanted to dismiss the matter but since the incident was shown on the media they had to respond.
Vasudev said his son and family would get justice only if the murderer gets maximum punishment.
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