More On: Ripudaman Singh Malik
A man acquitted in the 1985 Air India terror assault was shot and killed in Canada
According to reports, a guy who was acquitted in the 1985 Air India terror attack that killed 329 people was shot dead outside of Vancouver, Canada, on Thursday morning.
According to The Toronto Star, Ripudaman Singh Malik was slain while sitting in his car outside a business center in Surrey.
According to the article, Malik, 75, and Ajaib Singh Bagri were exonerated of mass murder and conspiracy charges in 2005 after being implicated for a plane explosion near Ireland that killed 280 Canadians and a bombing at a Tokyo airport that killed two luggage handlers.
They were imprisoned for the massacre in 2000, and they were accused of targeting India's national airline in vengeance for the government's deadly raid on a key Sikh spiritual site. According to the site, Malik and Bagri were released after crucial prosecution witnesses were considered untrustworthy.
It was unclear whether Malik's "targeted" murder was related to the horrors to which he had been linked.
According to the outlet, a suspect's car was discovered in flames nearby shortly after the 9:30 a.m. shooting.
“The investigation is in the early stages and police are still looking for the suspect and a second vehicle that may have been used as a getaway vehicle,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reportedly said.
A car wash worker who heard the ambush ran outside and found Malik injured, according to The Canadian Press.
“There was three gunshots. One hit on the neck, that’s it. And I just took him out. He was alive,” the man said.
“It’s shocking,” longtime friend Asaf Gill told the paper. “He was acquitted for some reasons. Who is somebody else to take the law into their hands?”
According to The National Post, Malik, a multi-millionaire businessman, immigrated to Canada from India in 1972 and became an active member of British Columbia's Sikh separatist movement.
Malik built a credit union and a private school for community members after working as a cab driver, and was recognized for his spiritual teachings, according to his son on Facebook.
“The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing. He was wrongly charged, Jaspreet Singh Malik wrote. “The media and RCMP never seemed to accept the Court’s decision and I pray today’s tragedy is not related.”
Another defendant, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was reportedly convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the terror attack's bomb-making. Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged ringleader, was slain by police in 1992.
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