Investigators arrive at the scene of a fatal shooting, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Two men were charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik. Malik, the man acquitted in 2005 for the bombings of two Air India jets, was gunned down outside his business.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Two men have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the contract killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a B.C. man acquitted in the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings.
Tanner Fox and Jose Lopez, who were 21 and 23 years old respectively when charged two summers ago, both entered the pleas in New Westminster Supreme Court on Monday. Mr. Lopez then, according to witnesses, sprinted across the courtroom and began punching his co-accused, before sheriffs intervened and separated the two men.
The pair, who were originally charged with first-degree murder, are due back in court on Oct. 31 for another hearing, with sentencing decisions handed out separately at a later date.
Mr. Fox’s lawyer, Richard Fowler, said that under an agreement, the Crown will ask a judge to rule both men ineligible for parole for 20 years from the time they were arrested – five fewer years than the standard period given to those sentenced to life for the crime.
An agreed statement of facts was read in court that acknowledged the pair had been hired to carry out the slaying of Mr. Malik on July 14, 2022, in a Surrey, B.C., parking lot not far from his clothing business. A white SUV was found on fire a short time after the 75-year-old’s killing.
The court heard Monday that the DNA of the accused was later found on clothing items and police linked them to the murder with security footage and bullet casings tied to handguns stashed in a bag. Police also recovered $16,000 cash in one of their bags.
Both men had criminal records for offences in the suburbs of Vancouver.
But there was no mention of who hired them to kill Mr. Malik or why someone wanted him dead.
His family released a statement saying the plea deals bring them mixed emotions: a sense of some justice that the killers will be punished but anger that they still do not know who was behind the plot.
“Until the parties responsible for hiring them and directing this assassination are brought to justice, the work remains incomplete,” the statement said.
Last week, the head of the RCMP linked Indian government agents to homicides, extortions and other violent criminal activities in Canada, as Ottawa expelled India’s high commissioner and five other diplomats, plunging the already fraught relationship between the two countries into a deeper chill. The RCMP said they have clear evidence tying Indian officials to the crimes but released no details, citing the need to protect open investigations and court proceedings.
Members of Sikh communities in Canada have called on authorities to investigate whether Indian agents had a hand in Mr. Malik’s killing.
Earlier this year, Mr. Malik’s son was contacted by the RCMP and told they had a “duty to warn” him he had a credible threat made against his life. The family, in their statement, thanked the RCMP and prosecutors for their work and said they continue to have faith that Mounties are still investigating more suspects and will eventually recommend more charges in relation to their patriarch’s murder.
Mr. Malik was a businessman who owned companies that included Papillon Eastern Imports Ltd., a distributor of women’s apparel from Asia. He was among three people charged with the Air India bombings of June 23, 1985, which killed 329 people, including 280 Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Two baggage handlers at the Tokyo airport were also killed in another explosion the same day.
The terrorist attack, Canada’s worst mass murder, exposed flaws in the country’s security systems and drew attention to Sikh extremism in this country. A public inquiry issued a report in 2010 that blamed a “cascading series of errors” by police, intelligence officers and air safety regulators and prompted then-prime minister Stephen Harper to apologize to the victims’ families.
Mr. Malik was acquitted in 2005 along with Kamloops sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri. The sole person convicted in connection with the bombings was Inderjit Singh Reyat, first convicted of manslaughter for his role in making the bombs and later for perjury over his testimony at the trial of Mr. Malik and Mr. Bagri.
The alleged mastermind of the plot, Sikh fundamentalist leader Talwinder Singh Parmar, was arrested in 1985 but never charged. He later went into hiding and was killed in India. The Crown’s theory was that B.C.-based extremists planned the attack as revenge against the Indian government for ordering the army to raid Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, in Amritsar in June, 1984.
Mr. Malik spent 4½ years in detention before his acquittal.
His 2022 slaying put a spotlight on continuing litigation between him and Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed a year later in a shooting now linked to the Indian government. The two were involved in a dispute related to Mr. Malik printing the Sikh holy book – the Guru Granth Sahib – in Surrey in violation of a religious edict.