Ludhiana, January 21
Almost 30 years after his conviction for murder, Malkiat Singh Bhandol, who had since acquired Canadian citizenship, was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the Canadian province of British Columbia and would now be deported back to India.

After the law finally caught up with this murder convict, he now faces not only the loss of Canadian citizenship for “misrepresentation” in his immigration petition, but also deportation to India followed by a life term in Ludhiana jail.

Malkiat Singh’s arrest and deportation become possible only after the Canadian Federal Court painstakingly pursued the case all the way to India, where Trial Division Judge Frederick E. Gibson, accompanied by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), held the first ever court outside Canada in March 2002. The court examined about 12 witnesses in the case pertaining to the revocation of Malkiat Singh’s citizen petition, filed by the Canadian Minister of Immigration.

The Tribune was the only newspaper that reported the setting up of a Rogatory Commission in India to record evidence of 21 witnesses in this citizen revocation matter under Section 10 (1) of the Canadian Citizenship Act before the trial division of the Federal Court. Malkiat Singh’s trial and arrest caused a furore in Canada owing to the long delay in conviction and arrest of the fugitive.

According to the RCMP, Malkiat Singh Bhandol was picked during a roadside check on Highway 97 in the Osoyoos area by chance. He was convicted for murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, obstruction and other charges in 1975 and was also suspected to be having terrorist links. The RCMP police told Canadian media that “Bhandol held a B.C. driver’s licence showing a Surrey address, but had been making a living as a fruit grower in the Okanagan for many years, leading a quiet life with his wife and two children”.

In March, last year, Mr Charles E. Stinson, Special Adviser of the Federal Court of Canada, had told this correspondent that Malkiat Singh was convicted in the murder case by the Ludhiana Sessions Court after which he filed an appeal before the Punjab and Haryana High Court and also got bail in 1975. He lost the appeal in 1978. Later, he jumped bail and fled to Canada in 1980 where he subsequently adopted the Canadian citizenship. Though, the case was closed in India, a complaint was filed before the Canadian Citizen and Immigration Department by relatives of the murdered person, highlighting the fact that the man was a murder convict and had lied in his immigration petition about his criminal record. The Federal Court was pursuing the matter to verify if Malkiat Singh had made a mis-statement in his immigration and citizenship petition.

He told The Tribune “since it was not possible to pursue the case in Canada in the absence of evidence that was only available here, the Federal Court of Canada requested the Government of India to allow it to set up a courtroom here to conduct the trial.”

In 1975, Malkiat Singh was convicted for revenge killing linked to a family feud for which he was given a life sentence for murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, obstruction and other charges. He withheld this information in his immigration petition.