Manpreet Gill, the only real passenger in a cargo van concerned in a high-speed police chase that resulted in a lethal wrong-way crash on Freeway 401 east of Toronto in April, has been denied bail and can stay in custody.
Gill, 38, appeared in an Oshawa, Ont., courtroom by video hyperlink for the second straight day on Friday from Maplehurst Correctional Complicated in Milton.
Justice of the peace Andrea Racine learn her resolution late Friday afternoon. Her causes for denying bail are lined by a publication ban.
Gill is charged in reference to the a liquor retailer theft in Clarington that Durham Regional Police stated led to the pursuit on April 29.
A cousin who had travelled from British Columbia to behave as a surety final week instructed Ontario Chronicle that Gill had no recollection of the incident. He stated Gill could not keep in mind whether or not he was seated on the passenger facet or at the back of the U-Haul van through the cascade of occasions that resulted in 4 deaths, together with an toddler.
Police pursued a cargo van dashing in the other way of site visitors on April 29, on Freeway 401 close to Whitby, Ont. (YouTube/DJLToronto_DashCam)
The accused, who suffered severe accidents within the collision and was solely not too long ago launched from hospital, wore orange jail garb and used a wheelchair. He adopted court docket proceedings by way of a Punjabi interpreter.
The Particular Investigations Unit — Ontario’s civilian police oversight company that investigates the conduct of law enforcement officials in incidents that will have resulted in demise, severe harm, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm — is probing two officers’ involvement within the pursuit and crash. The six-vehicle collision in Whitby killed three-month-old Aditya Vivaan and his paternal grandparents.
The 21-year-old driver of the cargo van was additionally killed within the fiery pileup.
Gill, who’s listed in court docket paperwork as having no fastened deal with, is just not charged in reference to the deaths or the try to flee police.
WATCH | Passenger charged after deadly wrong-way crash on Freeway 401: 
Passenger in lethal wrong-way Freeway 401 crash charged
A passenger concerned in a deadly crash on Ontario’s Freeway 401 final month is going through a variety of felony charges over the occasions that led as much as the crash. Manpreet Gill is accused of robbing a liquor retailer shortly earlier than being pursued by police in a high-speed chase going the mistaken manner down the busy freeway.
Public data present he faces 12 charges stemming from that day, together with counts associated to the LCBO retailer theft and a number of breaches of probation. He is additionally charged with stealing merchandise from a Canadian Tire retailer in Clarington three days earlier.
Individually, Gill had been barred from an LCBO outlet in Vaughan after going through charges in February associated to the theft of merchandise from the shop. Court docket paperwork present Gill was additionally charged in July 2022 with possession of a automobile obtained by crime in Mississauga.
Durham police final month revealed a quick timeline of the lethal sequence of occasions on April 29.
Police stated a suspect pulled a knife on an off-duty officer “who had intervened to stop the theft” on the Clarington liquor retailer. Officers stated they later overlooked the suspect after he sped away in a white van.
In keeping with police, minutes later, the U-Haul “struck a cruiser” earlier than getting into the busy eastbound Freeway 401 travelling in the other way of site visitors.
Manivannan Srinivasapillai, 60, and Mahalakshmi Ananthakrishnan, 55, had been visiting from Chennai, India, after they had been killed within the ensuing crash, together with their toddler grandson. The boy’s dad and mom had been injured.
A reported theft at a Bowmanville liquor retailer, throughout the Ontario municipality of Clarington, set off a series of occasions on April 29 that resulted in a deadly wrong-way crash on Freeway 401. (Thomas Daigle/CBC)
In novice movies reviewed by CBC Information, 20 police autos could possibly be seen pursuing the cargo van on both facet of the freeway. At the least seven gave chase travelling in the other way of site visitors.
Gill is scheduled to return to court docket on Aug. 15.
