The grisly discovery of the bodies of four former Dubai women at the bottom of a freshwater boating canal in Canada has led to the arrest of a former Dubai businessman, his wife and their son.
According to media reports, Mohammad Shafi, his wife, and his 18-year-old son were arrested in Montreal where they have lived after moving from Dubai.
A native of Kabul, Afhganistan, Shafi was taken into custody in connection to the unexplained deaths of his three daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17 and Geeti, 13 and a fourth relative Rona Amir Mohammed, all of whom lived in Dubai for 15 years before immigrating to Canada two years ago.
“Though the family is from Kabul, they had been living in Dubai for 15 years before immigrating to Montreal two years ago. Shafi is a businessman specializing in Sony and Panasonic electronics. He now owns a shopping centre in Laval,'' the Toronto Star said quoting Shafi.
A Parks Canada worker on the Rideau Canal in Eastern Ontario came across a submerged car June 30 and when police retrieved the vehicle from three metres of water, the Shafi sisters and their reported aunt were found still buckled into their car seats.
An official with the Consulate General of Afghanistan in Dubai told XPRESS Thursday he wasn't aware of the Shafi case but said the issue would be raised with Consul General Haji Rashoudin Mohammadi.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Shafi and surviving family members were arrested by police en route to Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and may have been trying to flee the country as the investigation widened.
The suspects were transported by authorities back to Kingston where the sunken car was found.
After a month-long probe into the mysterious deaths, Kingston police scheduled a press conference for Thursday to elaborate on the arrests, noting that the case had been upgraded from “suspicious''.
Before the arrest, Shafi told police that on the evening that his daughters disappeared, the family was returning from a summer holiday in Niagara Falls in two cars, a black Nissan and a Lexus, and had stopped and booked two rooms overnight at a hotel in Kingston before planning to return to their Montreal home the next day.
He claimed that his daughter may have taken the Nissan for a joyride that went horribly wrong even though police noted that it was strange that the car had to navigate its way around several posts and moorings to plunge into the canal. There were no skidmarks.
Shafi recounted that his oldest daughter Zainab had come to their hotel room for the car keys to the Nissan to collect some clothes from the vehicle and that was the last time he saw his daughter alive.
When he awoke the next day, Shafi claimed the Nissan was missing as were his daughters and the fourth female relative who was described as an aunt.
