MONTREAL — A Quebec man who has admitted to drowning two of his children in 2022 concluded his testimony at his first-degree murder trial Tuesday after several days of tense of cross-examination.
Kamaljit Arora, 49, was questioned numerous times by the Crown about the search history on his cellphone that included searches on various topics on lethal substances or causing death.
Over several days of testimony at the Laval, Que., courthouse, Arora frequently said he did not remember making some of those queries — or reading the articles that came up from them. Among the topics on the phone were searches about carbon monoxide deaths, drownings, homicides and fentanyl.
“When it’s not in my head, how can I say that it came from my phone?” Arora testified.
For the searches he did remember, he said they were typically related to wanting to end his own life.
Arora even suggested that the search history on his phone might not exclusively reflect his own actions, as his son’s device was synced with his phone. He also told jurors his wife would often use his phone.
In a written admission, Arora has admitted to drowning his 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter on Oct. 17, 2022. Their names are subject to a publication ban.
But he has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, the attempted murder of his older daughter and the strangulation of his former wife at their Montreal-area home.
The Crown intends to prove that Arora’s actions were premeditated, but Arora maintains he had no memory of the events because he had tried to kill himself by ingesting fentanyl in the hours before the children’s deaths. His lawyer has asked the jury to consider other factors that could have influenced Arora that day.
The trial has heard that the family arrived in Canada from India in 2015 in search of a better life for their children.
Arora had been suffering mental health issues since about 2020 including a severe depression. He had attempted or considered suicide on several occasions.
In the hours before the killings, he had purchased what he thought was fentanyl with the intent of dying by suicide. Arora has said he has no recollection of the rest of the day after consuming the illegal drugs.
The accused said he only remembers waking up handcuffed in hospital a few weeks after the deaths. Even as of late 2025, Arora didn’t believe he killed the children. “I heard a lot of things but I was not accepting it was me,” he told the jury earlier.
During the cross-examination, prosecutor Claudia Carbonneau questioned Arora about marital and familial tensions, including that his wife had repeatedly demanded a divorce since 2017, which the accused refused because he feared the children would suffer without him.
The trial also heard that his wife’s family owed Arora more than $80,000, but the accused insisted he was not angry about the debt. He complained about a family member who “destroyed” his family life by meddling and influencing his wife.
Defence lawyer Elise Pinsonnault has stated previously that a psychiatrist who treated Arora will testify for the defence.
The jury trial, presided by Superior Court Justice Alexandre Bien-Aimé Bastien, resumes on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
