The mother of a young child Toronto police believe was abducted and taken to India by his father is pleading for the return of her son, who left on what was supposed to be a two-week vacation last summer.
Camila Vilas Boas, whose three-year-old son Valentino has been away since August, said she never leaves her cellphone, hoping the screen will finally light up with news her boy is on his way home.
“I don’t leave my phone for a second — I go to the bathroom with my phone, I sleep my phone,” she told Global News in a tearful interview.
Vilas Boas’ husband Kapil Sunak took their son on a trip to India at the beginning of August during a custody dispute, according to police, and never returned.
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Toronto police said 48-year-old Sunak is wanted for abduction by a parent/custody order and officers believe he has not returned to Canada since leaving for India with his son months ago. Sunak was born in Canada but has family ties to India.
Vilas Boas said there had been a marital dispute but that Sunak was allowed to take Valentino on vacations. He had been to the United States, Cuba and Mexico with their son but, when he suggested a trip to India, Vilas Boas said she said no.
“I did not authorize the trip, I said not comfortable going to India,” she explained.
At the time the trip was planned, however, Sunak had temporary custody of their son. He and his lawyer went to a Newmarket court, where a judge signed off on the trip she was concerned about.
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In the fall, Vilas Boas was granted full custody of her son but with the boy and his father seemingly still out of the country, the custody victory means little to her.
“I don’t have the child, I just have a piece of paper,” she said.
Contacted by Global News, the lawyer listed as representing Sunak declined to comment.
Sunak is described in a police news release as six-feet-three-inches tall with a heavy build and short brown hair and facial hair. His son is described as four feet tall, 45 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues