Air India bomb suspects 'guilty beyond doubt': Prosecutors

The two men accused of the Air India jumbo jet bombing that killed 329 people nearly 20 years ago were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Canadian prosecutors said.

Vancouver millionaire Ripudaman Singh Malik, 57, and mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, of Kamloops, British Columbia, are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and first-degree murder in the world’s worst airline terrorism act before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Air India flight 182, a Boeing 747 named The Emperor Kanishka for the Indian ruler at the time of Christ, blew up off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985, killing all aboard. The plane was travelling from Toronto to India via London.

The last contact with the Air India Jumbo was at 8.13 am on June 23, a Sunday morning. The six-hour transatlantic Flight 182 from Montreal to Bombay was less than 30 minutes from touchdown at Heathrow.

Shortly after 8am, a flight engineer made contact with Shannon Air Traffic Control exactly four minutes before the disaster. Suddenly, the jumbo disappeared from air traffic controllers’ radar screens. There was no Mayday.

The black box later revealed that the pilot and crew were having a conversation about custom seals. The sound of an explosion interrupted the verbal exchange. The time was one second past 0813 hours.

Malik and Bagri, who have been in custody in Vancouver since their arrest in late 2000, are also charged in connection with a blast on the same June day that killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

More than 32 lawyers are working on the case, believed to have cost more than €72m since hearings began in April 2003. It is being heard in a €4.3m British Columbia Supreme Court room specifically built for security precautions.

Prosecutors believe Malik and Bagri were part of a conspiracy by British Columbia-based Sikh extremists to take revenge against the Indian government for attacking a Sikh temple in 1984.

Prosecution lawyer Robert Wright opened final arguments, expected to last two weeks, yesterday, saying the guilt of Bagri and Malik “has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt”.

“This is, in our submission, a politically-motivated and terrorist event … consistent only with a political and religious zealotry,” Wright said.

The prosecution noted that Bagri reportedly told The World Sikh Organisation in 1984 at Madison Square Garden in New York City: “Until we kill 50,000 Hindus we will not rest.”

He proposed the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan and “spoke of the need for Sikhs to wage a war of independence to exact revenge against the Indian government”, according to documents released by the court.

Bagri has also been accused of inciting people at Sikh temples in British Columbia and Ontario, and for calling for the death of then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was assassinated in 1984.

“Who would do something so terrible to kill so many innocent people? There is no doubt these people were murdered,” Wright said.

The prosecution’s case is largely based on the testimony of three witnesses who said the defendants had confessed the crimes to them.

“These admissions are the ultimate piece of evidence against the accused,” Wright said.

The defence has attacked the credibility of the witnesses and asserted that Malik lacked a motive because he was not interested in Indian politics.

Defence lawyer David Crossin argued two weeks ago that one witness was a former disgruntled employee, another was paid €324,000 by the government to testify and the third denied evidence she had given to investigators years ago.

Much of the case, however, hinges on the position of the bomb on flight 182, which originated in Vancouver. Prosecutors argue the bomb was in luggage originating there. But Bagri’s lawyers say the luggage containing the bomb joined the flight in Toronto.

“There was a murder plot in which two planes were supposed to explode simultaneously. The two bombs originated here in the city of Vancouver,” Wright said.

He said Malik booked and paid for the tickets while Bagri arranged for bags containing the bombs to be delivered to the airport.

Expert prosecution witnesses who testified also worked on the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people.

At a secret Vancouver warehouse, salvaged parts of the plane have been reassembled with other parts fabricated using film footage of pieces still on the ocean floor.