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Kanishka Bombing Suspect Denied Bail Again

J M Shenoy

For the second time in three months, Ajaib Singh Bagri has been denied bail.

Bagri awaits trial as a co-conspirator in the 1985 Air-India bombing that killed 329 people. He is also charged with the 1988 murder attempt on publisher Tara Singh Hayer, a former Khalistani who turned against the radicals after the Air-India bombing.

Hayer, who was paralyzed following the attack, was murdered nearly 10 years later. But officials are yet to name a suspect in the murder.

The current "charges [against Bagri] have no connection to the ongoing investigation of Mr Hayer's murder", the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said when Bagri was arrested.

Hayer was reportedly targeted because of his knowledge of the Air-India bombing and his political disagreements with extremists. In his editorials in his Punjabi-language weekly, he regularly criticized the Khalistanis.

One of the reasons the British Columbia courts of appeal gave in denying the bail on Tuesday was that Bagri posed threats to potential witnesses, particularly in the Hayer case.

Bagri, a sawmill worker and Sikh preacher, was arrested last October along with Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53-year-old Sikh millionaire, who has also been denied bail.

Local newspapers described Bagri as a loyal ally of Talwinder Singh Parmar, who ran the dreaded Babbar Khalsa. Parmar was killed in India in a shootout with the police on October 15, 1992. His followers believe Parmar was set up.

Bagri has steadfastly denied any involvement in the Air-India bombing or the Hayer murder attempt.

Canada has also named a third suspect, Inderjit Singh Reyat, who is at the end of his 10-year-sentence for planting a bomb in a suitcase that exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers, before it could be transferred to an Air-India carrier.

The Narita explosion took place the same day Air-India Flight 182 blew up on June 23, 1985 over the Atlantic ocean near Ireland.

But Canada needs Britain to modify a previous extradition order before new charges can be laid. Reyat, who lived in British Columbia, fled to London and was extradited from England to be tried on a specific charge. Now that the authorities want to try him for another crime, special permission is needed from England.

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