Toronto (Canada): The Superior Court of Toronto has sentenced Richard Edwin to life imprisonment for the first-degree murder of 21-year-old Indian student Kartik Vasudev and another individual in 2022. Justice Jane Kelly delivered the verdict on Monday, April 20, 2026, rejecting the defence’s plea that Edwin was not criminally responsible (NCR) due to a mental disorder. While the court acknowledged that Edwin was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the attacks, it ruled that he was capable of distinguishing right from wrong, thereby mandating a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The brutal incident occurred on April 7, 2022, while Vasudev, a management student at Seneca College and a resident of Ghaziabad, was walking near the Sherbourne subway station. Court records detailed that Edwin rushed past the young student before turning back to fire multiple shots into his back. Just two days later, Edwin carried out a second random killing, shooting another stranger, Elijah Eleazar Mahepath. The unprovoked nature of the attacks on strangers had initially caused significant panic within the Toronto community and international student circles.
Speaking from Toronto, the victim’s father, Jitesh Vasudev, expressed a sense of closure after a grueling four-year legal battle. The family, residing in the Rajendra Nagar area of Ghaziabad, had travelled to Canada specifically to attend the final proceedings. Kartik had moved to Toronto in January 2022 to pursue his dreams of higher education but was killed just months into his semester. His body was eventually repatriated to India, where his last rites were performed at the Hindan river. The sentencing marks the end of a high-profile case that highlighted the safety concerns of the Indian diaspora and international students in Canada.
