The man convicted of gunning down a Guelph hotel manager in 2016 has been denied bail yet again.
Raja Dosanjh, who last year was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Aly Sunderani, was seeking bail while awaiting the decision of the appeal of a previous ruling to deny him bail while he waits for the outcome of the appeal of his murder conviction.
He was also denied bail prior to the original trial.
The Sept. 10 decision by Cheif Justice of Ontario George Strathy only concerned the dismissal of the application for bail for Dosanjh, not the appeal of the murder conviction.
Stathy was tasked with considering whether the decision of the bail judge on May 13, 2020, was made in error.
According to the written decision, defence attorney Alan Gold identified several potential grounds of appeal, including an allegedly erroneous jury instruction and a Charter argument concerning the obtaining of a search warrant during the police investigation.
Gold also said the bail judge did not consider why a defence proposal for $1 million in bail and strict house arrest did not address any residual public safety concerns.
Those public safety concerns could not addressed by the proposed release plan, said Crown Attorney Deborah Krick, as Dosanjh was convicted of first-degree murder in which a submachine gun with a silencer was used in broad daylight in a public place.
In his decision, Strathy said he agreed with the bail judge that most of the grounds of appeal were relatively weak and that there are lingering public safety concerns.
As a result of those two factors, Strathy said the interest of enfocing Dosanjh’s incarceration outweighs the interest in reviewing it.
“The applicant has not persuaded me that it is arguable that the bail judge committed material errors of fact or law, or that his decision was clearly unwarranted,” said Strathy in his decision.
Dosanjh was found guilty of first-degree murder on Aug. 1 in a Guelph courthouse and sentenced the same day to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.
