VANCOUVER: Manjeet Kaur Nanda, an Indo-Canadian woman whose fast-food restaurant here was destroyed in a blast Feb 13, has committed suicide.
The body of Nanda, who co-owned the Taco Del Mar restaurant on West Broadway here with her husband Harjit, was found in the waters of a beach near Squamish. Squamish is about an hour's drive from the Vancouver suburb of Surrey where the Nandas lived.
Forty-two-year-old Nanda had gone missing a day after the massive night explosion destroyed their restaurant.
A day later, the police found her 1999 Nissan Pathfinder abandoned on the highway from Surrey to Squamish.
Her body was also recovered floating in the waters of the Howe Sound beach near by.
Her husband told the local Radio India that she left a suicide note, blaming the bad media publicity to her family for driving her to take this extreme step.
"That is all the devastated husband spoke about and he didn't say anything more," a Radio India journalist told IANS.
Though she was distraught after the arson, family members admitted she also suffered from general depression for other unknown reasons.
Since the Nanda family had put their business and home on sale, initially many speculated their hand in the explosion. But the police ruled it out as a suspect with 40 percent burns was nabbed.
Later, it was also speculated that the family might be facing financial hardships. But the deceased and her husband had told the media that they didn't owe anybody any money. They also said that they had no enmity with anyone and no disgruntled staff.
The massive explosion had destroyed not only their restaurant but also a Starbucks and a fashion garment store, apart from damaging many other shops in the seven-storey building and across the road. The damages run into more than two million dollars.
The Vancouver Police said Monday: "The death of Manjeet Nanda has added another twist to the investigation of the Feb 13 arson."
