ADVOCATE Avneesh Thakur in Moga, Punjab, told Punjab media on Sunday that he’s angry that his brother Ritesh Thakur’s murder in Vaughn, north of Toronto, on May 4 has been linked to drug trafficking and has fired off letters to Canada’s prime minister and the RCMP demanding his killers be arrested quickly.
Avneesh told media on Sunday in Punjab: “My brother was falsely implicated in a case of narcotic smuggling. But the police could not find drugs in his possession. The case was under trial.”
He added: “Ritesh Thakur is survived by his wife and children aged 9 and 11. He had moved to Canada with his family with the dream of a better life. But he was killed in broad daylight at a shopping plaza by criminals with no fear of the law. He was a well-educated and respectable man.
“He was a lawyer and CPA of the United States by profession.”
Earlier this month, the Tribune had reported: “In Moga, meanwhile, Ritesh’s brothers Yogesh Thakur and Ashwani Thakur were shocked to hear the news of their brother’s murder. They told the media that Ritesh went to Canada about 13 years ago and was running a hotel in Toronto.”
This week, the newspaper reported that Ritesh’s body was brought to India by his family and cremated in Moga on May 15.
ONTARIO’S York Regional Police said in a press release earlier this month that they believed that Thakur’s murder “was a targeted crime and not a random event.”
He was gunned down in front of a HomeSense store near Highway 7 and Weston Road in Vaughan.
Police said: “Attending officers found a lone male victim laying in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds. The man was transported to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
Thakur, who was to appear in court later this month, was one of four men charged by Toronto Police in May 2013 for drug trafficking. At the time he was living in Mississauga.
Police seized $6.5 million worth of cocaine, crystal meth and a drug known as GHB.
They said that three men were arrested on May 6, 2013, near Bay Street and Lake Shore Boulevard after they discovered 33 kg of cocaine in two cars.
Police later arrested a fourth man and recovered another 29 kg of cocaine, 3 kg of crystal meth and a small amount of liquid GHB.
Philipos Kollaros, 33, of Vancouver, Gursharan Singh, 29, of Mississauga, and Dimitri Alexiou, 36, of Quebec, all face drug trafficking and possession charges.
