ELORA – The cousin of a Brampton man who drowned in the Grand River last month has identified the 29-year-old victim as Navneet Singh.
Emergency crews responded to Elora’s Bissell Park on the evening of Aug. 24 after Singh jumped from a bridge into the river and didn’t resurface.
Originally from Jalandhar, a northern city in India’s Punjab state, Singh married and followed his wife to Canada, settling in Brampton two and a half years ago, according to Jatinder Dahri, who identified Singh.
In the years leading up to his death, Singh delivered food as a gig worker, Dahri told the Advertiser by phone from British Columbia.
Singh’s marriage faltered, and he moved to Wellington County in recent months, Dahri said.
“He did go through a rough patch, which we were not aware of; he would never disclose the details to us of what he was going through,” Dahri said.
He added he “was deeply shocked and at a loss for words” when police tracked him down three days after his cousin’s death and shared the news.
Dahri recalled watching his cousin playing back home in India when he was a child. He grew into a deeply spiritual man in the Sikh faith, Dahri said.
The money earned from delivering food was sent back to India, where Singh’s mother and sister, Balvinder and Komalpreet Kaur, still live. His father isn’t alive.
Dahri is now trying to return Singh’s body to his family in Jalandhar for “last rites,” a cremation funeral believed by Sikhs to separate the soul from the body to rejoin God.
Dahri is motivated by a “sense of duty,” he said, and concern for Balvinder.
“More than me, I’m worried about my aunt, Navneet’s mom, how is she going to go through not just now but even afterwards?” he said.
According to Dahri, the cost to repatriate Singh’s body to New Delhi is $12,500.
Of the cost, $7,129 had been raised as of Sept. 13, in a Go Fund Me campaign started by Dahri to help alleviate the expense.
Dahri said Singh’s body was expected to leave Canada last weekend.
