Subramanya Sundararajan, 52, is a Canadian citizen who lives in the Montreal suburb of Brossard. A mechanical engineer, he came to Canada from India 28 years ago. By all accounts, a law-abiding family man.
But briefly, he was also a hunted man, identified by The Star and other media outlets as someone wanted for FBI questioning regarding the terror attacks in the U.S.
Sundararajan’s story is a cautionary tale for journalists.
His nightmare began three days after the Sept. 11 suicide assaults, when The Star revealed police were hunting for a Quebecer “who may be linked to the crash of a hijacked jetliner in rural Pennsylvania.”
The staff-written story, datelined Pittsburgh and based on unnamed police sources, said a “Subranabya Sunararajan” was to be apprehended for investigation by agents probing the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
The wanted man was said to be driving a rented van toward Canada, either through Buffalo or Niagara Falls, N.Y.
It just happened that Sundararajan had been in Pittsburgh during the week of the terrorist assaults. He had been attending the 2001 American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Design Engineering conference.
With his flight home to Montreal cancelled, he and a colleague rented a red Pontiac Grand-Am, and crossed the border near Gananoque two days after the attacks.
In other words, a wanted man passed easily through the Canada-U.S. border even though he was wanted by police in both countries.
He got home at 8 p.m., unaware that police wanted him. A Star reporter phoned with the news.
But Sundararajan’s explanation of the Pittsburgh conference and his insistance that police could easily have contacted him through the car rental firm weren’t included in The Star’s manhunt story the next day.
Editors say they dropped Sundararajan’s quotes from the story because they didn’t think he was the wanted man. Sundararajan’s name was different from the “Subranabya Sunararajan” the FBI had leaked.
The day after The Star’s story ran, the Montreal Gazette reported the FBI had withdrawn the all-points-bulletin. “It no longer exists,” an FBI spokesperson said.
Regrettably, The Star did nothing to clear Sundararajan’s name for three more days.
On Tuesday, it published a second news story reporting, a little grudgingly, that Sundararajan “says” he’s an innocent man. The FBI refused to discuss the mix-up and an RCMP spokesperson said: “To my knowledge, he is not wanted by us.”
Sundararajan is angry with the FBI for releasing his name (which, incidentally, was spelled the same way Alamo, the Pittsburgh car rental outfit, had misspelled it).
He’s also upset at The Star for “irresponsible journalism” and failure to verify facts or quote him in the first story. These actions, he says, “caused serious safety concerns for my family and affected my image in society and in the workplace.”
Indeed, Sundararajan is now under police protection.
Deputy managing editor Joe Hall agreed The Star could have done a better job. “We’re truly sorry for the anguish we have caused this man and his family. We should have been more diligent in following up the first story promptly,” he said.
“With all the turmoil of that awful week, and reporters trying to follow it from so many angles, this story temporarily fell off our radar screens.”
I agree.
This case also suggests The Star could be more careful with information from unnamed police sources. Innocent people can be hurt.
