According to a news report published in Toronto Star, Vir had sent a packet of gulab jamun mix to McGuinty as a gift. Leaving it with his staff member Monica Masciantonio, she e-mailed McGuinty, asking whether Masciantonio had given it to him. “It read that ‘if she (Masciantonio) didn’t give it to you (McGuinty), I’ll kill her’,” the report said, adding that Vir had clarified later that it was just a slang and in India they often used these words.

Vir had left for Canada with her family in 2002 and was supposed to come back to Chandigarh and join the college on July 3 this year. In 2004 also, she had come once and worked for a few months.

Her colleagues in the MCM college said Vir was quite an efficient lecturer and it was quite unlike her to issue anyone a death threat. Talking to Newsline, Vini Arora, a Botany lecturer at MCMDAV and Vir’s friend, said, “I received a letter from her around 15 days ago in which she sounded a bit depressed. She had mentioned that she wants to come back to India. She is a nice person and cannot threaten anyone like that. What she said was just a slang and should not have been taken seriously.”

Madhu Bhandhari, HoD, Botany, said: “She was an ambitious woman and when she had come back in 2004 she taught well. We have never had any issues with her.”

Though no one, including college principal Puneet Bedi, commented anything related to Vir’s mental state, most of them said she remained a bit depressed. Vir’s parents live in Nangal.

Though she was supposed to join college on July 3, it doesn’t seem possible now, as she has to appear for a hearing in Canada. According to PTI, Vir is working as a freelance reporter for the Asian Daily newspaper in Canada and she claims it was a case of “cultural misunderstanding” and that she had no malicious intent in writing the mail.

Police had arrested Vir in November last year and seized her laptop, camera and other documents, and later released her on the condition that she would not contact the premier, his staff, family, and not enter the provincial assembly, known as Queen’s Park. However, Vir, reportedly wrote to the premier again, apologising for her mistake, which she called “a cultural misunderstanding”.