Five years after his disappearance, Jeyakumar Shanmuganathan has been recaptured while attempting to return to Canada
The Iron Grill restaurant went up in flames after an explosion on Aug. 12, 2009. (File photo)
WOODSTOCK - A suspect wanted in the 2009 Iron Grill arson — who has been on the run for five years — has been arrested and is being held at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.
A spokesperson for the Woodstock police said Jeyakumar Shanmuganathan was arrested at Pearson Airport on March 2 while attempting to return to Canada after his passport had expired. A warrant was issued for him after he failed to show up in court in 2011.
The country from which he was departing is unknown.
Shanmuganathan, 43, was originally charged with conspiring to commit arson by setting the Iron Grill Restaurant on Dundas on fire in 2011, two years after the restaurant was razed by fire following an explosion.
While conditions of his bail at that time included a non-communication order with other suspects and a weapons ban, according to court documents Shanmuganathan was allowed to keep his passport.
The tragic fire at Iron Grill Restaurant resulted in the death of one suspect, a second, Usama Akhter, had burns to 75 per cent of his body.
Akhter admitted in court in November 2014 that he set the fire in 2009 with his best friend Sarfraz Ahmed, who sustained burns to 98 per cent of his body and later died from his injuries.
The Iron Grill had been listed on the real estate market in July 2009 for $1.4 million and later that month a flood caused $46,000 in damages, closing the popular eatery.
Akhter was sentenced in 2014 to two years less once day of house arrest with a list of conditions and two years of probation.
A third person, Arun Rajendiran, who plotted the fire with the two other men but was not on the scene at the time of the blaze, took his own life in November of 2014 while serving a prison sentence of two-years-less-a-day.
Rajendiran, Akhter and Ahmed and two others, all of who resided in Toronto and had been friends for several years, were allegedly approached by Shanmuganathan, who was acquainted with the owner of the Iron Grill.
During Akhter’s court appearance, he alleged they were offered $5,000 and any liquor they could retrieve from the building to set it on fire.
At the scene the duo fled the building following a massive explosion.
Both Akhter and Ahmed were taken to burn units and put into medically-induced comas.
Akhter lives with major medical issues and requires a full-time caregiver.
Shanmuganathan, who requires the services of a Tamil interpreter, will undergo a bail hearing on March 30.
