BITTER END: THE AIR INDIA TRIAL VERDICT Introduction Their reactions spanned a distressing conflict that began on the other side of Focus continuum of emotions: shock, bitter- the world. When the nations of India Almost 20 years ness, disappointment, and anger. The and Pakistan were established in 1948, after two terrorist bombs killed 331 families of the victims of the Air India the Indo-Pakistani border cut the Punjab people, the trial of tragedy were dealt yet another setback region in half. Punjab is the homeland two men charged when Mr. Justice Ian Josephson acquit- of a religion known as Sikhism, with in the Air India ted two men, Ripudaman Singh Malik proponents of the religion referred to as tragedy ended in and Ajaib Singh Bagri, on charges that Sikhs. Since 1948, some Sikhs have their acquittal. This they were part of a conspiracy that led fought to establish a homeland in the News in Review story examines the to the worst mass murder in Canadian Punjab known as Khalistan. Support for tragedy from its history. On June 23, 1985, two bombs the movement has waxed and waned. cruel beginning in exploded within an hour of each Some groups have gone to extremes to June 1985 to the other—one at Tokyo’s Narita airport try to achieve the Khalistani goal. By trial verdict in resulting in the death of two baggage the early 1980s, some of the more March 2005. handlers and one while Air India Flight militant groups had drawn the attention 182, a Boeing 747 with 329 people on of the government of India. In an ag- board, was flying off the coast of Ire- gressive and provocative move, Indian Did you know . land. Everyone died in the bombing of armed forces attacked the most sacred Inderjit Singh Reyat was tried and Flight 182. Of those killed, 278 were site in Sikhism, the Golden Temple convicted of man- Canadian; 82 were children. When complex in Amritsar. According to slaughter in the Josephson read the verdict, over 70 some reports, thousands of people were Narita airport relatives of the victims of Flight 182 killed and several important buildings bombing in 1991? were in the courtroom. were destroyed. The attack on the He was sentenced The trial of Malik and Bagri reopened Golden Temple infuriated Sikhs around to 10 years in prison. Just prior to the Air India wound that had been the world, and some militant Sikh the completion of troubling the collective Canadian groups vowed swift retaliation and his sentence, conscience for decades. It took 15 years murderous revenge. A branch of one of authorities charged to lay charges, two years and $130- these extremist groups, the Babbar him in the Air India million to try the case, and over $7- Khalsa or “Tigers of the True Faith,” conspiracy. million to build a secure courtroom in was operating in Canada. The leader of Vancouver to stage the trial. In the end, the Vancouver branch of the Babbar YV Sections the two accused men were acquitted. Khalsa was Talwinder Singh Parmar. In marked with this Only one man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, the summer of 1984, he made a fiery symbol indicate was convicted in the Air India attacks. speech to Calgary Sikhs where he content suitable for Reyat struck a controversial plea bar- proclaimed that Air India planes would younger viewers. gain with the Crown. He admitted to “fall from the sky” in retribution for the buying parts that went into the bomb attack on the Golden Temple. Parmar but not to making the bomb nor being promised the audience, “We’ll think of part of the conspiracy. The worst mass something. We’ll make a plan” (Na- murder in Canadian history—and only tional Post, October 28, 2000). one man, a minor player in a larger Parmar is thought to have been the conspiracy, was brought to justice. mastermind behind the Air India trag- This tragedy finds its roots in a edy. In the spring of 1985, he is said to CBC News in Review • May 2005 • Page 18 have orchestrated a conspiracy that determined that Bagri was a member of Further Research resulted in the construction of the the Babbar Khalsa and that Malik had To make your own bombs, their placement on the target given money to the organization. CSIS mind up about this complex trial, aircrafts, and the destruction of the lives also told the RCMP about the wooded consider viewing of 331 innocent people. Parmar, Inderjit area of Vancouver Island where Parmar the transcript of Singh Reyat, and an unidentified ac- and Reyat had tested explosives. With the trial at the Law complice tested dynamite in a wooded all this information, how did Parmar, in Courts Education area on Vancouver Island weeks before particular, elude Canadian justice? Society of British the bombings. Ajaib Singh Bagri was Unfortunately, the answer to that ques- Columbia at www.airindiatrial.ca. identified by the RCMP as a devout tion may have died with Parmar in Sikh and disciple of Parmar’s who was 1992, when he was killed in a shootout a key player in the conspiracy. with police in India. As for Bagri and Did you know . Ripudaman Singh Malik, a wealthy Malik, their association with Parmar Justice Josephson Vancouver businessman, was said to was not enough to prove that they were criticized CSIS when have financed the project. None of this a part of the conspiracy that killed the he brought down could be proven definitively in court. baggage handlers in Japan and ended his verdict? He described the Justice Josephson found the testimony the lives of the 329 souls on Flight 182. erasing of the tapes of witnesses to be unreliable and con- Only Reyat, the man who admitted he as “unacceptable tradictory. In the end, Josephson con- had purchased some of the parts that negligence.” The cluded that, “Justice is not achieved . went into the bombs, and who pleaded RCMP agreed, if persons are convicted on anything guilty to manslaughter, has been held claiming that, had CSIS shared the less than the requisite standard of proof accountable. Based on the terms of the tapes between beyond a reasonable doubt. The plea bargain, Reyat got five years in April and August evidence has fallen short of that stan- prison for the deaths of the 331 Air 1985 instead of dard” (The Globe and Mail, March 17, India tragedy victims. While the Crown erasing them, they 2005). hoped that Reyat would provide key likely would have What boggles the minds of most evidence against Malik and Bagri in the solved the case. Canadians is how the perpetrators of trial, they saw their hopes dashed once such a heinous crime can continue to he took the stand. In fact, the Crown elude justice. Early efforts to capture asked to treat Reyat—their witness—as and charge Parmar and his co-conspira- hostile. tors failed due to a lack of evidence, The families of the victims reacted to despite the fact that CSIS, Canada’s spy the verdict with a collective cry for a agency, had been taping Parmar’s public inquiry; a cry that was initially phone conversations since the early rejected by Public Safety Minister, spring of 1985. In a disturbing twist to Anne McLellan. However, the chorus in the tragedy, CSIS destroyed most of the favour of an inquiry grew louder, and tapes after the Air India bombings and McLellan agreed to appoint former only shared the remaining tapes after a Ontario premier Bob Rae to determine protracted battle with the RCMP. whether or not a public inquiry was Parmar was also under CSIS surveil- necessary. In the meantime, the most lance right up to the time of the bomb- notorious case of mass murder in Cana- ings. CSIS agents were able to deter- dian history, a crime that most certainly mine that Bagri and Malik were known involved a terrorist conspiracy, remains associates of Parmar. In fact, they unsolved. CBC News in Review • May 2005 • Page 19 To Consider 1. How did the trial of Malik and Bagri reopen the Air India wound that had been with Canadians for decades? 2. Who is the only man to be convicted of any crime related to the Air India tragedy? What was his crime? What was his sentence? 3. Outline the roots of the crisis that led to the bombings in 1985. 4. Who were Talwinder Singh Parmar, Inderjit Singh Reyat, Ripudaman Singh Malik, and Ajaib Singh Bagri? What role do authorities think these men played in the Air India tragedy? 5. What evidence was there that suggested that the capture and prosecution of those responsible for the Air India tragedy should have been swift and easy? 6. What is your reaction to the plea bargain negotiated by Inderjit Singh Reyat? CBC News in Review • May 2005 • Page 20 BITTER END: THE AIR INDIA TRIAL VERDICT YV Video Review 1. What happened in June 1985 that changed the lives of so many Canadian Respond to the citizens? questions while viewing the video. Check with your teacher or peers for 2. How many children died in the Air India tragedy? _______________________ any answers that you did not find. 3. Who did the RCMP suspect of being responsible for the bombings? Why? CBC Archives For an audio-visual summary of the 4. Describe the events surrounding the Air India bombings and explain why tragedy, visit the the police suspected Malik and Bagri. CBC Digital Ar- chives at www.cbc.ca/ archives and view the file “The Air 5.