Air India bombings: Suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik shot dead in Canada

OTTAWA: An acquitted suspect in the 1985 Air India bombings case was shot dead in Canada on Thursday. The dead has been identified as Ripudaman Singh Malik. He was killed in a targeted shooting in Vancouver, British Columbia. The police soon rushed to the spot and provided first-aid, but he could not be saved. Following the attack, the shooters had fled the place. A search operation is underway for the culprits, said the police.

Singh was a Sikh industrialist and a philanthropist. A total of 331 people, including 329 passengers and employees, were killed in the Air India flight 182 bombings on June 23, 1985. The Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai flight had exploded near the Irish coast.

The Air India blast took place during the peak of the Punjab riots. Reports suggest that the attack was in revenge of the Indian Army’s operation at the Golden Temple. The bombing came in as another bomb exploded at Japan's Narita airport, killing two workers who were loading baggage onto an Air India flight. A subsequent investigation led to the recovery of two suitcase bombs in Vancouver, a city with a high Sikh immigrant population.

Inderjit Singh Reyat is the only person, who was convicted in the case. He was found guilty of making the bombs and for lying at the trials of fellow terrorists. Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were the other two accused. However, they were acquitted by the court in 2005 citing lack of sufficient evidence. Reyat was paroled in 2016 after serving two decades behind bars. Ripudaman Singh Malik had visited India in December 2019 after his name was removed from the blacklist.