A Toronto-area man charged with first-degree murder after his 11-year-old daughter’s body was found in a Brampton home died Wednesday, said Peel Regional Police.
Roopesh Rajkumar, 41, had been in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto with a self-inflicted gunshot wound since the night Riya Rajkumar was found dead last week.
He died the same day hundreds of mourners remembered Riya at an emotional funeral service in Etobicoke in suburban Toronto.
Rajkumar was arrested at about midnight the night of Feb. 14, around the same time officers discovered Riya’s body in his basement apartment following an Amber Alert issued about an hour earlier.
Police said homicide investigators are continuing to investigate the death of Riya, a Grade 5 student at Meadowvale Village Public School.
Police were initially alerted by Riya’s mother that Rajkumar had failed to return the young girl from her birthday celebrations that evening.
Riya Rajkumar, 11, was found dead in her father’s basement apartment in Brampton, Ont., on Feb. 14. (Submitted)
Dad taken to hospital after arrest
Provincial police found Rajkumar driving north on Highway 11 near Orillia, about 130 kilometres north of Brampton, in a silver Honda Civic.
Initially, police revealed he was taken to hospital rather than jail, but declined to disclose what led to that decision.
On Feb. 16, Peel police Const. Danny Marttini said that after provincial police transferred him to Peel’s custody, officers noticed he was “not acting right” and decided to call paramedics, who transported him to a local hospital.
Doctors discovered he was suffering from a gunshot wound and then taken to a trauma centre for further treatment.
Details of his wound weren’t immediately released.
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