The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, October 29, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Two held for ’85 Kanishka crash

TORONTO, Oct 28 (AP)—Two Sikhs were arrested and charged with murdering 329 persons in the 1985 bombing of an Air-India jumbo jet near Ireland and two baggage handlers killed by another bomb in Tokyo.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced the charges in Canada’s biggest mass murder case after a 15-year investigation that was the nation’s largest and cost millions of dollars.

Air-India flight 182 from Montreal to New Delhi, with a planned stop in London, went down off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 persons aboard.

Canadian investigators have long said they believed Sikh terrorists seeking revenge for India’s 1984 raid on the golden Temple in Amritsar, planted a bomb aboard flight 182.

The same day as the disaster, an attempt to sabotage Air -India flight 301 in Tokyo failed when a bomb blew up prematurely, killing two baggage handlers. A Sikh man is serving a 10-year sentence in Canada for his involvement in the Tokyo explosion.

The RCMP identified the two men arrested yesterday as Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51. They have been charged with planning and carrying out the two bombings, and causing 331 deaths—329 on flight 182 and the two Tokyo baggage handlers.

They also were charged with conspiring to kill more than 500 persons—the 329 on flight 182 and more than 170 on flight 301.

An RCMP spokeswoman for the Air-India task force set up to investigate the case, Constable Cate Galliford, said in Vancouver that the police force would refrain from releasing further information about the charges and evidence.

In its Friday afternoon edition, the Vancouver province newspaper reported one of the men to be charged was a key lieutenant of Talwinder Singh Parmar, a militant shot by the police in India on October 15, 1992. Parmar was the founder and leader of the Babbar Khalsa .

"We’re anticipating future arrests,” said Galliford. She later added: "After 15 years of investigation, the task force is feeling very relieved today.”

Due to the length and cost of the investigation, the police has been criticised for failing to arrest any suspects. In 1998, a team of prosecutors received an initial police report on possible charges. The prosecution team was more than doubled last year.

British Columbia Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, a former Attorney-General of the province during the investigation, said before confirmation of the arrests yesterday that the charges would be major step for Canadian justice.

NEW DELHI (PTI): India on Saturday termed as “positive” development the arrest of two Canada-based Sikhs on charges of murdering 329 persons in the 1985 bombing of an Air India jumbo jet near Ireland saying that those involved in terrorist activities must face the consequences of the law. “Any person who is involved in terrorism of any kind has to bear the consequences of the law,” an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said.

Kanishka crash
15 years, $ 30 m to investigate Canada’s largest crime...
Tribune News Service

The arrest of two Canadian Sikhs —Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri — in the 1985 Air India crash case has been played up all leading Canadian English dailies on their page one today. The arrests were made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver yesterday after more than 15 years of meticulous investigation. The crash had taken place off the coast of Ireland that killed more than 329 people aboard Air India flight 182 to New Delhi and Mumbai from Toronto Pearson International Airport.

One of the victims of the crash was from Chandigarh. The ill-fated aircraft was co-piloted by Satwinder Singh Bhinder, whose widow is now Manager (Sales), Punjab and Chandigarh, Air India, in Chandigarh.

The case has been in the news ever since this major disaster took place. Two books written about this air crash — The Death of Air India Flight 182 by Salim Jiwa; and Soft Target by Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew — raised many a stormy debate in Canada’s House of Commons.

According to the lead story in National Post, Canada’s national daily, and other major English dailies, including Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun, the RCMP believes that the plane was brought down by a terrorist bomb. Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51, have been charged with eight counts — two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiring to cause bombs to be put on aircraft and three counts of causing a bomb to be placed on an aircraft.

Mr Bagri has also been charged with the 1988 attempted murder of Tara Singh Hayer, the newspaper publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times. Mr Hayer was shot dead in 1998.

Malik, a businessman, and Bagri, a sawmill worker, will appear in court on Monday.Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat were named in the RCMP charge information as unindicted co-conspirators.

Parmar, formerly of Burnaby, B.C., was shot dead in India on Oct. 15, 1992. Parmar was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa, a militant group dedicated to the creation of Khalistan from India’s Punjab state. A 10-year insurgency in the state of Punjab cost thousands of lives.

Reyat was convicted in 1991 of making the Tokyo bomb. He is in prison. RCMP said there could be more arrests.

“We’re anticipating further arrests but we’re not about to comment right now,” said RCMP Const. Cate Galliford, spokeswoman for the Air India task force. Galliford said the Air India task force had attempted to contact as many of the victims’ families as possible to inform them of today’s arrests and charges.

“Over the years, unfortunately, we have lost contact with many of the next of kin. We are encouraging any of the victims’ family members to contact the task force.” About 120 family members were contacted. “They’re obviously showing very mixed emotions,” Galliford said. “It’s been 15 years. A lot of them in very many ways have moved on with their lives. They’re very relieved and, of course, us being in contact with them today has opened up a lot of things that they have been trying to put behind them. So it’s a very difficult time for them right now, but they expressed relief to us.” “We’ve spent the last 15 years gathering enough evidence so that all of these charges would be supported,” Galliford said.

Gathering evidence and finding and interviewing witnesses took time. Law enforcement agencies all over the world were involved.

“There were also many witnesses that were initially hesitant to talk to investigators,” Galliford said. “These criminal acts marked the beginning of one of the largest and most complex investigations ever undertaken by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” Beverly Busson, Assistant Commander of the RCMP, said. “This has been a worldwide investigation with extremely challenging logistical problems.”

A Toronto-area woman, Mrs Pada, who lost her husband and two teenage daughters in the crash said the charges are something she and her family have been waiting for “for what seems like an eternity.”

The RCMP raided Mr Malik’s Vancouver home at about noon on Friday as a phalanx of news photographers and a few curious neighbours had gathered outside the large, modern residence. Mr Bagri was arrested from his residence in Kamloops in British Columbia. The President of the Ross Street Sikh Temple, according to the National Post report , said the community was being relieved charges have been laid.

“Justice should be done,” said Jarnail Singh Bhandal, the President of the Temple. “I know it took a long time,” but the community never gave up hope that charges would be laid, Mr. Bhandal said.” Those families were going through great pain and... the whole community was going through pain”.

Ujjal Dosanjh, the Premier of British Columbia, who had responsibility for the Air India investigation while he was Attorney- General, also saw the arrests as the beginning of the end of an unresolved piece of Canadian justice.

“I think people of British Columbia, people of Canada, would finally heave a sigh of relief that the largest crime, the most significant crime in the history of Canada, is going to be finally dealt with,” said Mr Dosanjh, a native of India and Canada’s first Indo-Canadian premier.

A total of 329 persons — including 278 Canadians — were killed in the June 23, 1985, crash. Dosanjh said he knew Malik and Bagri, but did not associate with them. “I really haven’t had any association with these people at all with the exception of meeting them at events.” Dosanjh said he helped draft the constitution for Malik’s Khalsa school in Surrey when he worked as a lawyer.

Dosanjh was severely beaten with an iron bar and suffered 30 stitches to his head and face in February 1985 when he spoke out against what he viewed as rising Sikh extremism in Canada. The Boeing 747 jet was en route to New Delhi and Bombay after collecting passengers in Toronto and Montreal.

The RCMP launched one of the largest criminal investigations in its history, spending millions of dollars in a hunt widely criticized for its delays.Early on, police focused on militants among the Sikh community in British Columbia, home to about half of Canada’s 200,000 Sikhs — a minority group in India.

In 1991, Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician from the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, was convicted in the bombing at Tokyo’s Narita airport that occurred an hour before the Air India blast.

Police linked this blast with the explosion that downed Air India flight 182. They also opposed Mr Reyat’s early release from a 10-year sentence, suggesting he would be charged in the Air India case.

In 1999, government documents obtained under access to information legislation suggested that as many as 1,000 witnesses might have to testify at any trial stemming from the bombing.

The startling forecast raised the possibility of a complex trial that might last years. Other documents have indicated the investigation alone has cost in the neighbourhood of $30-million.

Chronology of events

1985:
June 23: Air India Flight 182 explodes near Ireland, killing 329 people - 278 Canadians. An hour before the blast, two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita airport are killed when a bag explodes as it is being transferred to an Air India flight. RCMP link both blasts to the conspirators.

1986:
Jan 22: Canadian Aviation Safety Board says a bomb brought down the jet.

Feb 4: India also concludes a bomb brought down the jet.

1990:
Jan 30: Citizens Alliance for a Public Inquiry into the Air India disaster claims RCMP blocking its bid for a public inquiry.

1991:
Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician from the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, is sentenced to 10 years in jail on manslaughter and explosives charges related to the Narita bombing.

1992:
Bombing suspect Talwinder Singh Parmar, a preacher from Burnaby, killed in a shootout with Indian police officers. Critics say he was arrested and executed.

1995:
May: RCMP offer a $1 million reward for help catching the bombers.

1996:
Oct 17: Prime Minister Jean Chretien rejects the idea of holding a royal commission into the Air India bombing, saying the crime is too old.

Dec: Police say they have almost concluded their investigation.

1997:
April: National Parole Board panel denies Reyat parole.

June: Police say they have almost concluded their investigation and charges are likely soon.

Nov: RCMP Commissioner Philip Murray blames delays in laying charges on complexities of dealing with other countries to gather evidence.

1998:
Feb: RCMP Insp. Gary Bass, head of the Air India probe, says in a letter that investigators will recommend charges against Reyat and others.

March 7: National Parole Board panel denies Reyat’s early release.

March 25: Independent MP John Nunziata repeats his longstanding call for a royal commission into the Air India disaster.

October 15: RCMP sends long-awaited report to Crown lawyers to assess whether charges can be laid.

1999:
April Crown puts up posting, seeking to more than double the number of prosecutors working on case.

August Access to information documents suggest as many as 1,000 witnesses might be have to testify at any bombing trial.

2000:
January RCMP says it will review allegations that a former member of Canada’s spy agency deliberately destroyed tapes related to the bombing.

Oct 23: Two Vancouver-area men arrested to face murder, conspiracy charges in Air India bombings.

Text of the individual counts laid in the 1985 Air India bombings:

Count 1:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, between the 1st day of June, 1984, and the 24th day of June, 1985, at or near the cities of Vancouver, Kamloops and Duncan, the District of Burnaby, the Corporation of the Township of Richmond and elsewhere in the province of British Columbia and Canada did unlawfully conspire together the one with the other or others of them and with Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat and with a person or with persons unknown, to murder the passengers and crew of an aircraft designated as Air India Flight 301 scheduled to depart New Tokyo International Airport, Narita, Japan, at approximately 1:05 a.m., on June 23, 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time) for Bangkok, Thailand, and the 329 passengers and crew of an aircraft designated as Air India Flight 182 which departed from Mirabel International Airport, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at approximately 7:20 p.m., on June 22, 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time) for Heathrow International Airport, London, England, contrary to section 423 (1)(a) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 2:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, on or about the 23rd day of June, 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time) at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond in the Province of British Columbia and elsewhere in the Province of British Columbia and Canada and off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland did commit the first-degree murder of the 329 passengers and crew of Air India Flight 182 (referred to in Count 1 above), contrary to Section 218(l) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 3:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, between the 18th day of June, 1985 and the 24th day of June, 1985, at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond in the Province of British Columbia and elsewhere in the Province of British Columbia and Canada, and at or near Narita Chiba Prefecture, Japan, did attempt to commit the murder of the passengers and crew of Air India Flight 301 (referred to in Count 1 above) by attempting to place on board the said aircraft a bomb intended to cause its destruction and the death of its occupants, contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 4:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, on or about the 22nd day of June, 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time) at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, in the Province of British Columbia, and elsewhere in the Province of British Columbia and Canada, and in Narita Chiba Prefecture, Japan, did commit the first-degree murder of Hideo Asano and Hideharo Koda, contrary to Section 218(l) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 5:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, between the 1st day of June, 1984 and the 24th day of June, 1985 at or near the Cities of Vancouver, Kamloops and Duncan, the District of Burnaby, the Corporation of the Township of Richmond and elsewhere in the Province of British Columbia and Canada did unlawfully conspire together the one with the other or others of them and with Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat and with a person or with persons unknown, to commit the indictable offences of causing to be placed on board aircraft in service, namely:

a) an aircraft designated as Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 003 which departed the Vancouver International Airport at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, British Columbia at approximately 1:30 p.m. on June 22, 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time); b) Air India Flight 301 (referred to in Count 1 above);

c) an aircraft designated as Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 060 which departed the Vancouver

International Airport at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, British Columbia at approximately 9:20 A.M. on June 22 7 1985 (Pacific Daylight Time), and;

d) an aircraft designated as Air India Flight 181, which departed from Toronto, Ontario, at approximately 5:20 p.m. on June 22,1985 (Pacific Daylight Time), travelling to Montreal, Quebec where it was renamed Air India Flight 182 (referred to in Count 1 above); bombs that were likely to cause damage to the said aircraft that would render them incapable of flight or that were likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft in flight contrary to Section 76.2(c) and 423(l)(d) of the C Code of Canada, R-S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 6:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, on or about the 22nd day of June, 1985, at the Vancouver International Airport at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, in the province of British Columbia did cause to be placed on board an aircraft in service, namely Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 003 (referred to in Count 5 above), a bomb that was likely to cause damage to the said aircraft that would render it incapable of flight or that was likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft in flight, contrary to Section 76.2(c) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 7:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, on or about the 22nd day of June, 1985, at the Vancouver International Airport at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, in the province of British Columbia did cause to be placed on board an aircraft in service, namely Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 060 (referred to in Count 5 above), a bomb that was likely to cause damage to the said aircraft that would render it incapable of flight or that was likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft in flight, contrary to Section 76.2(c) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.

Count 8:
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri on or about the 22nd day of June, 1985, at or near the Corporation of the Township of Richmond, in the province of British Columbia and at Lester B. Pearson International Airport at Toronto, Ontario, did cause to be placed on board an aircraft in service, namely Air India Flight 181 (referred to in Count 5 above) a bomb that was likely to cause damage to the said aircraft that would render it incapable of flight or that was likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft in flight, contrary to Section 76.2(c) of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-34.