Toronto man found guilty of murdering estranged wife with machete in 2019

Sasikaran Thanapalasingam has been found guilty of first-degree murder for killing his estranged wife with a machete in September 2019 in Scarborough.

Madam Justice Anne Molloy delivered her verdict in a downtown Toronto courtroom Tuesday after the judge-alone trial which began last fall.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Tharshika Jeganathan was captured on video surveillance on Sept. 11, 2019 near Ellesmere Road and Morrish Road, getting off a bus before being chased by a man who was wielding a machete.

The disturbing video captured the 27-year-old being attacked and killed in broad daylight as she was returning home from work at Dollarama to her basement apartment. She collapsed and died just two driveways away from her home.

Horrified bystanders who were home at the time called police to report a man with a machete. Others mentioned someone lying on the ground with a machete stuck on her head. Jeganathan’s friend also testified that she was talking on the phone with her when she heard a scream and the phone drop.

It was agreed upon by both Crown and defence that Thanapalasingam was the man seen in that video. In December 2017, less than a year after Jeganathan came to Canada to join her husband from India where they wed in an arranged marriage, court heard she had initiated divorce proceedings.

1:47 There’s no disputing a Scarborough man on trial for murdering his estranged wife fatally attacked her with a machete

Three weeks after she arrived in Canada, Thanapalasingam was arrested for assault and his wife moved out. Court heard the estranged husband repeatedly breached bail conditions to have no contact with Jeganathan.

Before the judge delivered her verdict, defence counsel Tom Pittman asked the judge to order a psychiatric assessment to determine whether Thanapalasingam was criminally responsible. A doctor determined Thanapalasingam, who was 41 at the time of his arrest, understood that what he did was wrong.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for October.