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By Kim Bolan and Ian Bailey A third suspect was arrested in connection with the 1985 Air-India bombing last night, but won't be charged until he makes his first court appearance.
Mr. Johal is a prominent Sikh separatist leader who has been active in the B.C. New Democratic Party. Meanwhile, security concerns following the arrests on Friday of two other Sikh separatists in the bombing have forced Punjab's Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to cancel an official visit to B.C. this week. Both the government of India and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department agreed on Saturday it would be too risky for Mr. Badal to come given tensions in the Sikh community over the arrests of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri. The RCMP said yesterday it expects more arrests in the Air-India bombing that left 329 dead. One of the suspects, dubbed the 11th-hour man after he backed out of the 1985 plot, is on vacation in England with relatives. Air-India Task Force media liaison Constable Cate Galliford also said yesterday that new witnesses have come forward with information since the arrests. Mr. Malik and Mr. Bagri will make an appearance in Vancouver provincial court today on eight counts of conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in connection with the bombing of Air-India Flight 182 on June 23, 1985 and the killing of two baggage handlers at a Japanese airport the same day. Mr. Bagri is also charged with attempting to kill newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer in 1988. Mr. Malik, a multi-millionaire businessman, is a nonviolent man devoted to his faith, his lawyer said yesterday. ''This is a man of peace. He is a very religious and spiritual man,'' Terry La Liberte said, adding his client will plead not guilty. Mr. La Liberte is hoping the Crown will disclose some of its evidence, which will allow him to begin trying to get bail for his client. ''This is not a man who is going to run,'' Mr. La Liberte said of his client, president of a credit union with 16,000 members and founder of two Sikh schools. ''Besides: In a case like this, where is a person going to run? Mr. Malik is not going to be able to hide out anywhere on the planet Earth.'' Mr. La Liberte said he expects the Crown will use informants to try to convict his 53-year-old client. ''It has to be informant-type evidence,'' he said. ''That's the only thing they could possibly have against my client, which in a very political mileu like this is totally suspect.'' Mr. Malik, who has amassed real-estate holdings worth about $10-million since moving from India to Canada in the 1970s has been associated with the religious wing of the extreme separatist group, Babbar Khalsa. He was an associate of Talwinder Singh Parmar, founder of Babbar Khalsa and a prime suspect in the Air-India bombing killed in a 1992 shootout with Indian police. Mr. Bagri's lawyer declined to comment yesterday on his client's plans. Mr. Bagri, a 51-year-old millworker from Kamloops, B.C., and Mr. Malik were charged as participants in a conspiracy to murder the jet's passengers, as part of a scheme to strike out at India's government over its treatment of Sikhs and to win a Sikh homeland. Many Sikhs were outraged at the Indian government's attack on the Golden Temple, a holy site of great importance to members of the religious minority. The charges suggest that co-conspirators to the two men included Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat. Reyat, 48, was convicted of manslaughter for building a bomb that exploded at Narita Airport in Japan. Two baggage handlers were killed while transferring a suitcase containing the device from a Canadian Pacific airlines flight from Vancouver to Air India Flight 301, which was headed for Thailand. Reyat's lawyer denied yesterday that his client, listed in court documents as an unindicted co-conspirator, was planning to testify against the others. Kuldip Chaggar said the community is filled with rumours he will testify, and they could endanger Reyat and his family. Source: The Vancouver Sun and National Post October 30, 2000, Monday.
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Hardial Singh
Johal, a former Sikh temple president, who lives in
east Vancouver, was taken into custody about 7:30 p.m. PT.