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RCMP bugle the Air-India bombing case By Robert Matas VANCOUVER -- The high-profile Air-India bombing investigation is going extremely well, RCMP Constable Cate Galliford said yesterday. "Everything is going according to our operational plan," Constable Galliford said in an interview. "We're feeling very confident, the way things have been going." After a 15-year investigation into the bloodiest terrorist attack in aviation history, the longest and most expensive police investigation in Canadian history, police arrested two suspects last week and charged them with murder. A mid-air bomb explosion aboard an Air-India flight en route from Canada to England killed 329 people on June 23, 1985. However, the arrests have not quelled concerns about how police are handling the investigation of the largest mass murder in Canadian history, which has been plagued by problems. Some people were critical after a third suspect was arrested on Sunday night but released Monday without any charges being laid. "It's a sign of total disorganization and disarray," said Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, who in the mid-1980s represented Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind of the Air-India bombing. "By the time [the police] make an arrest, they have to have reasonable and probable grounds," Mr. Ruby said. "Police have orderly minds, they do not go bouncing around." Arresting and releasing suspects without laying charges is not done, he added. "It does not happen, even in minor cases," he said. The police have also been criticized after one of the suspects who is a devout Sikh, Ripudaman Singh Malik, was required to take off his turban while in custody at the provincial courthouse. Constable Galliford said the arrest and release did not indicate a setback in the investigation. But she provided no details about why the suspect was arrested, detained and then sent home. She said criticism of the police on the turban issue was particularly unfair. While Mr. Malik was in RCMP custody, from the time of his arrest until he was taken to the courthouse on Monday, he wore a small turban, and was allowed to have prayer books, she said. Mr. Malik was required to take off his turban once he was in the custody of the B.C. Provincial Corrections staff, who took Mr. Malik to the courthouse, she added. Mr. Malik was brought into court with what looked like a shower cap pushed down on his head. Although he was given time to change into a turban, his lawyer rushed him into court to show the judge how Mr. Malik was being treated while in custody. Prominent members of the Sikh community said the police had been insensitive to Sikh traditions and Mr. Malik should receive a formal apology from the federal government and the RCMP, who are in charge of the Air-India investigation. But Constable Galliford said the RCMP will not apologize. "We have nothing to apologize for," she said. "The RCMP has the utmost respect for all individual religions and makes attempts to accommodate the traditions and religions of prisoners while ensuring the safety of the prisoners and RCMP staff." A provincial corrections official said earlier this week a mistake was made, but the province did not intend to apologize formally to Mr. Malik. Some concern has also been expressed about the work of the Air-India legal team in dealing with Inderjit Singh Reyat, who is now completing a 10-year sentence for manslaughter for killing two baggage handlers in a bomb explosion at Japan's Narita airport. That bomb went off one hour earlier than the Air-India explosion. Police have linked both explosions to bombs in baggage checked on flights originating in Vancouver. Source: The Globe and Mail November 2, 2000, Thursday.
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