TWO Sikh immigrants to Canada were yesterday acquitted of bombing a London-bound Air India jumbo jet over the Atlantic in 1985 that killed more than 300 people. The sensational ruling by a lone Canadian judge, sitting without a jury in Vancouver, marked the collapse of a two-decade investigation into the bombing that killed 329 people killed when Air India Flight 182 plunged into the ocean off the coast of Ireland en route to Heathrow from Vancouver and Montreal. The acquittal of Ripadaman Singh Malik, 53, a self-made Vancouver millionaire, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, a rural millworker, drew gasps and wailing from the dozens of victims' relatives who had packed into the blast-resistant courtroom to hear the conclusion of the C$100 million (£43 million) trial. Justice Ian Bruce Josephson of the Supreme Court of British Columbia rejected alleged confessions recounted by prosecution witnesses. "The Crown has not proven its case against him beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. As he delivered his judgement against Bagri, Justice Josephson said "the evidence has fallen remarkably short . . . I find the Crown has not proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt". The two defendants were immediately removed from the courtroom.
Susheel Gupta, a lawyer who was 12 when his mother was killed in the bombing, said that he was "shocked and disgusted". "We waited 20 years. This is not the answer we had hoped to hear," he told CBC television. "It just goes to show why there needs to be a public inquiry. There was obviously a failure by all the agencies that were meant to protect us. Two bombs got on two planes leaving from Canada. No-one has been held accountable," Mr Gupta said. David Hayer, a Canadian legislator whose father was assassinated by Sikh extremists, said outside the court that he was shocked. "This sends a message to the world: Canada is open for terrorists."
| But we knew that already. Those of us who have been paying attention, that is. |
The Crown presented evidence that the Sikh group built suitcase bombs on Vancouver Island, bought air tickets, then planted the explosives aboard two flights from Vancouver that connected with Air India planes. Mr Malik and Mr Bagri were charged with eight counts of murder and conspiracy for planting the two bombs that went off within an hour of each other on on June 23, 1985. The first bomb killed two baggage handlers at Japan's Narita airport as it was being transferred to Air India flight 201 from a connecting flight from Vancouver. The second bomb exploded 54 minutes later aboard Air India flight 182, a Boeing 747 named The Emperor Kanishka as it cruised at 31,000 feet. Some of the passengers apparently survived the explosion only to perish in the icy waters of the Atlantic.
Just before the trial began in 2003, a third man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, who was already serving a 10-year sentence for the Tokyo airport bomb, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter in the Air India attack and was sentenced to five years in jail. The man investigators had suspected of masterminding the plot, Tarwinder Singh Parma, also an immigrant to Canada, died in a police shootout in India in 1992.
| And the Muslim Brotherhood was taking notes the whole time... |