Ajaib Singh Bagri

Ajaib Singh Bagri is a Sikh of Kamloops, British Columbia. Justice Josephson's judgment in R. v. Malik and Bagri says he was a founding member of the Babbar Khalsa in Canada and an associate of Talwinder Singh Parmar; a Hamilton temple priest told the court he was Parmar's "right hand", and The Canadian Encyclopedia calls him Parmar's lieutenant. He was arrested on 27 October 2000, tried over the bombing of Air India Flight 182 and the bomb at Narita Airport on 23 June 1985, and found not guilty on every count on 16 March 2005. The judgment records work records from Tolko Industries in Kamloops that placed him at work on weekdays in September 1985.

The Crown's case: The Crown charged him with conspiracy to murder the passengers and crew of Flight 182 and of Air India Flight 301, with the murder of the 329 people on Flight 182 and of two baggage handlers at Narita, and with placing bombs on aircraft. Its theory was that his part was securing the transport of the bomb-laden suitcases to Vancouver Airport. It rested on his motive, drawn from speeches of July and September 1984, among them one at the founding convention of the World Sikh Organization at Madison Square Garden; on his association with Parmar; and on remarks he was said to have made to two witnesses, called Mr. C and Ms. E in the judgment. No forensic evidence linked him to either bomb, and he did not testify.

What the court found: Justice Josephson found that Bagri harboured a motive for revenge, stemming from outrage at the actions of the Government of India towards Sikhs, but that this motive "was hardly unique to Mr. Bagri or to a small identifiable group that included him". He found that Bagri's close association with Parmar gave him the opportunity to join a conspiracy, but did not make it more likely that he had. Mr. C, an FBI informant who had been paid $300,000 (US) to testify, gave evidence that the judge found "not to be credible". Ms. E's statements to a CSIS agent, which the Crown relied on because she claimed at trial not to remember, were hearsay without reliable confirmation, and the judge found her memory loss to have been feigned. He concluded that the Crown had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and wrote that "the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard". He also found that Bagri's rights under section 7 of the Charter had been violated three times, including when CSIS destroyed Parmar's telephone intercepts.

The Hayer charge: In 2000 Bagri was also charged with the attempted murder of the newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer, who was shot and paralysed in 1988. The Globe and Mail reported on 9 January 2004 that prosecutors had dropped that charge, saying the evidence was no longer available; Bagri denied any involvement in the shooting.

Key moments

• 28 July 1984: speaks at the founding convention of the World Sikh Organization in New York.
• 27 October 2000: arrested outside his home in Kamloops.
• 28 April 2003: the trial opens in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
• 9 January 2004: the attempted murder charge over Tara Singh Hayer is dropped.
• 16 March 2005: acquitted, with Ripudaman Singh Malik; both walk out of the courthouse within the hour (The Canadian Encyclopedia).

Remembered for: Bagri is one of the two men tried over the Air India bombing. Maclean's reported that families of the victims gasped when the verdict was read and later demanded a public inquiry, and that the judge concluded the bombs were placed in Vancouver as part of a revenge conspiracy against the Government of India without identifying who ran it.