Crown stays charges against man accused in 2021 parking garage attack on Elnaz Hajtamiri

A Delta, B.C. man charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence had his charged stayed by the Crown in a Newmarket courtroom Friday.

The decision to halt the prosecution came a few weeks after Akash Rana, 27, testified as a Crown witness against Mohamad Lilo, who was convicted in the aggravated assault of his former girlfriend Elnaz Hajtamiri who is missing and presumed dead.

Rana testified about his role as one of a handful of men hired in a plot to track down, harm and kidnap Hajtamiri, who was abducted three weeks later from a home where she had gone into hiding with loved ones in Wasaga Beach.

Rana was one of at least seven men charged in connection with the parking garage assault and failed abduction attempt on Hajtamiri December 20, 2021, in Richmond Hill, Ont. that involved the use of a frying pan on her.

Police believe Lilo, who was dumped by Hajtamiri months earlier, orchestrated and is the common link between the parking garage attack on Hajtamiri and her eventual kidnapping January 12, 2022, in Wasaga Beach.

Lilo was convicted of aggravated assault by a Barrie jury following a six-week trial.

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Hajtamiri’s two attackers that day, Riyasat Singh, and Harshdeep Binner, took plea deals. Singh was deported in late 2022 and Binner was released from jail last month after two years in custody. Binner admitted to assaulting Hajtamiri with the frying pan while Singh recorded the attack on his phone before they were scared off by a passerby.

The court heard Binner and Singh waited for Hajtamiri in her parking garage that day, attacked her and fled the scene in a black Mazda stolen for them by Rana who was arrested in March 2023 and later granted bail.

Another man accused in the attack, Sukhpreet Singh, was on the run for two years on a Canada-wide warrant until he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Antonio, Texas last month.

Hajtamiri’s family says her vehicle was found to have tracking devices on it. Lilo, whom police say owned a shipping container business, remains in jail following his conviction awaiting sentencing in October and a separate trial for Hajtamiri’s murder in May 2026.

A staying of charges against Rana means the Crown has up to one year to resume its prosecution.

Another man charged in the case, Harshpreet Sekhon, is scheduled to return to a Newmarket courtroom next week. The allegations against the accused have not been tested in court.