Raman Joshi flew the skies of Asia for decades as commander of many aircraft for a variety of airlines.
The much-experienced 50-year-old pilot served Air India, in Taiwan before landing a job with Sri Lankan Airlines.
Three years ago he moved to Canada with his wife Ranjna and children – Kosa, 14 and Amanpari, six.
The couple originally from the Jalandhar area of Punjab in India wanted to raise their kids in Canada to give them a better life. Joshi continued to pilot planes in Asia to support his family.
Last week the family, which had settled down in the Toronto area, flew back to cremate their breadwinner.
Raman Joshi, 50, was found dead at his rented residence in Negombo outside of Colombo in Sri Lanka.
The airline’s human resources department first told the family in Canada that Joshi died of a heart attack.
Local police then said he was stabbed to death adding they found the body near the staircase of his house. There was a blood stained knife. A vessel filled with blood was also found near the body, they said.
Then the cops issued a statement saying the pilot committed suicide by hanging himself.
Later they issued another statement saying he had slit his wrists, stabbed himself and committed suicide by hanging himself in his rented house.
Now it has come back to a full-fledged murder probe with senior cops looking to see if the pilot had any connections with the Tamil Tigers rebel group that is fighting for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka.
 “The police’s contradictory statements have raised many questions,” said Varinder Parbhakar, Raman’s uncle. 
He claimed that the pilot was under round-the-clock surveillance by the Sri Lankan police.
Joshi’s father is demanding a high level inquiry while claiming that his son may have been killed as an example to keep foreign pilots away from Sri Lankan Airlines.
Talking to The Tribune, Jagan Nath Joshi, alleged that a lobby of Sri Lankan pilots eliminated his son as they did not want that citizens of other countries to be employed as pilots in Sri Lanka.
“I have come to know that the lobby has released chilling messages in Sri Lanka warning ‘outsider pilots’ against dire consequences if they got jobs in the Sri Lankan Airlines. By stabbing my son to death, they have sent a message to the job seekers,” claimed Joshi.
“I have no faith on the Sri Lankan police. I will approach the Union Home Ministry and demand a fresh post-mortem examination in India,” said the senior Joshi after his son’s was body was returned to their hometown in Punjab.
The family said commander Joshi sounded scared when they spoke to him on phone, but the pilot did not reveal any reasons for his fear.
“Raman was receiving frequent threatening calls from his Sri Lankan pilot colleagues, including women, on his mobile and landline phones for the past over five months. Last we talked on the phone was on September 24 evening when he failed to get his air ticket confirmed for Canada at Colombo airport,” Joshi’s wife Ranjna Joshi told Indian media.
Joshi was scheduled to visit his wife and kids in Canada on September 24 but was murdered a day before he left.
He didn’t report to duty for several days and Sri Lankan Airlines in turn filed a case of their missing pilot.
Ashok Kaushal, brother of Ranjna, said during his 16-year carrier as a pilot, Joshi worked for Indian airlines, Taiwan airlines and was very popular among his fellow pilots in Sri Lanka.
‘‘He was living in Sri Lanka for the last five years but his wife had immigrated to Canada three years back because the couple wanted to give better education to their kids,’’ Kaushal, told Indian media.
Ranjna said that she would write to the President of India to take up the issue with the Sri Lankan government for providing her justice.
Ottawa is also likely to become involved once the immigrant status of Raman Joshi is determined.
Local pilots in Sri Lanka have said their national carrier is violating the country`s aviation laws by continuing to ignore the applications of several experienced Sri Lankan pilots who have applied to join it, while continuing to retain as many as 35 expatriate pilots at great cost to the airline.
They said according to Section 208 of the Sri Lanka Air Navigation Act, no operator shall employ in Ceylon in any capacity in any air craft operation a person who is not a citizen of Ceylon, except with the prior approval of the Director (Civil Aviation) in writing.
The Sri Lankan Pilots` Guild is also backing the rehiring of local pilots who have earlier flown for the national carrier, but claims that Sri Lankan Airlines management for some mysterious reasons is not willing to lay off any of the expatriate pilots as done by other airlines in favour of their own nationals. The Guild said it has written to the Director General Civil Aviation in this regard, but it has not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement.  Sri Lankan Airlines has written back to the Guild stating that there are no vacancies as they are downsizing. The Guild charged that the national carrier was incurring billions of rupees in losses so it was strange to retain expatriate pilots who have to be paid extra housing and children`s educational allowances and also provide with 42 days of leave per year compared to local pilots who are only entitled to 28 days of leave. The foreign pilots also do not pay any taxes to the government on their salaries.