Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Canadian Sikh businessman who was acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, was shot dead in Surrey in Canada’s British Columbia province on Thursday morning. Confirming the death, Jaspal Singh, brother-in-Law of Malik told news agency ANI, “We are uncertain about who killed Ripudaman. His younger sister is on her way to Canada.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, investigating the case said it appeared as a targeted killing and they discovered a suspect vehicle fully engulfed in fire two kilometres away from the place where Malik was shot.
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Who’s Ripudaman Singh Malik?
Malik was one of the accused suspected of playing a crucial role in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 Kanishka.
On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 ‘Kanishka’ from Canada off the coast of Ireland was bombed killing 329 passengers and its crew. The deaths included over 280 Canadian citizens including 29 entire families and 86 children under the age of 12.
However, Malik who spent four years in prison was acquitted along with his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges. Malik had later demanded $9.2 million as compensation for legal fees that was rejected by a British Columbia judge.
The majority of the victims of the attack were Canadians, and the bombing was the result of a conspiracy conceived, planned and executed in Canada.
Once a supporter of the Sikh separatist movement, Malik came to Canada in 1972 and started working as a cab driver before becoming a successful businessman.
Malik was allegedly linked to Babbar Khalsa, a terrorist outfit that has carried out several terror attacks in Punjab, according to the Indian Express report. The report adds he was also a close associate of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind of the horific Air India bombing.
Malik was the president of a 16,000-member Vancouver-based Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) with assets to the tune of over $110 million, according to the report.
Malik had came to India in December 2019 after his name was removed from those blacklisted from travelling to the country.