Ripudaman Singh Malik shot dead in Canada: Looking back at 1985 Air India 182 bombing

Ripudaman Singh Malik, an accused in the 1985 Air India bombing, who was later let off due to lack of evidence in 2005, was shot dead on Thursday (July 14) in Surrey, British Columbia in Canada.

Malik was a suspect in the Air India Flight 182 bombing on June 23, 1985, in which 329 people were killed. The plane exploded off the Ireland coast as it flew from Montreal in Canada to Mumbai in India . 

There was another bomb explosion at Tokyo’s Narita Airport (Japan) where two baggage handlers died as the bomb detonated. 

Who was Ripudaman Singh Malik? Malik came to Canada in 1972 and started working as a cab driver. Later, he became the President of the 16,000 member Vancouver-based Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) with assets worth $110 million, The Indian Express reported.

He was the President of Satnam Education Society of British Columbia, Canada and ran Khalsa schools.

Ripudaman and the Khalsa group: Ripudaman Singh, when arrested in 2000 in connection with the  1985 Air India bombings, was a member of banned outfit Babbar Khalsa or Tigers of True Faith. The group advocated the demand for Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland for Indians. The group started its activities in several other countries including Canada.

It was founded by Talvinder Singh Parmar who was arrested in 1988 and gunned down by the police in 1992. The Air India bombing was said to be a making of his mind and he was under police surveillance since 1982. 

Parmar was no fan of then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after she had ordered military action inside Sikhism’s holiest shrine, The Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984. He was arrested along with another Inderjit Singh Reyat, who was spent 30 years in jail for lying in the two trials and also for making bombs in his Vancouver home, The Guardian reported. 

Ripudaman Singh Malik’s case: Since he was already under surveillance, Malik and another person Ajaib Singh Bagri, (a sawmill worker in Kamloops) were arrested in 2000 in connection to the Air India bombing incident.

The prosecution in Canada alleged that Malik financed and organised the entire bomb plot. In the court, the prosecution alleged that Malik had confessed his role and the role of other people to a woman, whose identity cannot be disclosed, The Province had reported.

Both Malik and Bagri were acquitted after a trial that lasted for 2 years and had 115 witnesses testifying. The judge said that the prosecution lacked evidence. "These cruel acts of terrorism cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted, on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said, reported by The Province (March 17, 2005).

What happened on June 23, 1985:  On the fateful day,  the Air India Flight 182 that was operating on the Montreal-London-Delhi-London route exploded nearly 31,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean. All 329 people, which included 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens and 24 Indians died. 

Another bomb exploded at Tokyo's Narita Airport killing two people who were loading the baggage onto an air India flight. The suitcases were then traced back to Vancouver.

This was the worst act of terrorist attack in the history of commercial airlines at the time.