Two men plead guilty to murder of Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik

Ottawa: Two men accused of killing Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh man acquitted in the tragic 1985 Air India Kanishka terrorist bombing case, have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a Canadian court, according to media reports.

Tanner Fox and Jose Lopez entered the pleas in the British Columbia (BC) Supreme Court on Monday on the eve of their trial for the killing of 75-year-old Malik, who was shot several times outside his family business on the morning of July 14, 2022.

Malik was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia in 2022. He and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to the two bombings in 1985 that killed 331 people.

In the court in New Westminster on Monday, both Fox and Lopez pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, the Global News reported.

The court heard an agreed statement of facts that revealed the two men had been hired to kill Malik, the report added.

"What we know from the agreed statement of facts is that there was some type of financial incentive that was involved in the commission of this crime, but in terms of any other specifics, it is another one of those situations where unfortunately it is just something that we as people on the outside will probably never know,” Lopez' lawyer Gloria Ng told Global News.

“One of the things we certainly have in the forefront of our minds is the youth of our client — Lopez is a very young man and we are certainly hopeful with prospects for rehabilitation.” In a statement, Malik's family described him as a "father, brother, husband and grandfather as well as a tireless community leader," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

"While we are grateful that the shooters are being brought to justice, we know that nothing will erase the pain that we have gone through losing a family member in this way," the family said.

"However, the work is not complete. Tanner Fox and Jose Lopez were hired to commit this murder. Until the parties responsible for hiring them and directing this assassination are brought to justice, the work remains incomplete." The family called on the killers to "co-operate with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in bringing those that hired you to justice." Crown and defence lawyers have agreed that Fox and Lopez should not be eligible for parole for 20 years. And they will next appear in court on October 31 for sentencing.

The 1985 Air India bombing is among the worst terrorist attacks in Canadian history and in the history of the airline.

On June 23, 1985, Air India flight 182, carrying 329 people, including 268 Canadian citizens and 24 Indian citizens, flew from Toronto and stopped in Montreal from where it was en route to London and then onwards to its final destination Bombay.

The plane was flying 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean when a suitcase bomb exploded in the front cargo, killing all on board.

Another bomb was meant to be planted in an Air India flight scheduled to take off from Japan but it exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport killing two baggage handlers.

Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted on various charges and spent 30 years in prison for helping to make the bombs, and for lying during trials, including Malik's. He was released in 2016 after serving two-thirds of his perjury sentence.

Reyat was the only person convicted for the Kanishka bombing.