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The now elderly man had a long list of enemies.
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July 14, 2022 • 5 minutes ago • 4 minutes read • 13 comments Ripudaman Singh Malik (centre) leaves British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, BC with supporters after being found not guilty in the Flight 182 bombing of Air India in 1985 Wednesday March 16, 2005 Malikl won’t get back $9.2 million in legal fees. Malik had admitted in a BC Supreme Court case that he would have a hard time convincing the government to cover his legal bills. Photo by RICHARD LAM /The Canadian Press
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A man acquitted in the 1985 Air India terror trial was shot dead outside his business in Surrey on Thursday morning.
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Ripudaman Singh Malik, a onetime supporter of the Sikh separatist movement Khalistan, was killed shortly before 9:30 a.m. in the 8200 block of 128th Street.
Various police agencies are investigating the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik at 8236 128th Street in Surrey, British Columbia, Thursday morning, July 14, 2022. Malik, a prominent Surrey businessman, was acquitted in 2015 of the Air India bombing that killed hundreds people in 1985 (Photo by Jason Payne/PNG) Photo by Jason Payne/PNG
In March 2005, Malik and his Babar Khalsa associate Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge of murder and conspiracy charges in Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack.
Accused Air India bombers Ajaib Singh Bagri (left) and Ripudaman Singh Malik walk together through the exercise yard at the prison where they are in custody November 1, 2004 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Bagri and Malik are accused of killing 331 people in two separate bombings targeting Air India on June 23, 1985. Photo by Jeff Vinick/Getty Images
Air India – then the country’s national airline – was bombed in retaliation for the Indian government’s attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar a year earlier, which left hundreds of Sikh worshipers dead.
A door from an Air India jumbo jet floated off the Irish coast after a bomb exploded, causing the plane to crash in 1985. RCMP will charge two British Columbia men with killing more than 300 people in connection with the Vancouver crash, the province reports. (CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/ap) CANWEST
Malik and Bagri are said to be part of a plot by a small group of militants from British Columbia who planted suitcase bombs on two connecting flights from Vancouver airport. The deadly bags were marked for Air India flights traveling in opposite directions.
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One exploded aboard Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 on board, most of whom were Canadian citizens. The other exploded at Tokyo’s Narita Airport while being transferred. Two baggage handlers were killed.
Inderjit Reyat, a former Vancouver Island resident, was convicted of manslaughter in both attacks.
After Malik’s acquittal, he resumed his leadership roles at Khalsa Credit Union and Satnam Education Society, which run several Khalsa schools. And he moved from Vancouver to South Surrey. He went on to run a number of businesses, including Papillion Eastern Imports, the clothing company based in the building where Malik was killed on Thursday.
Various police agencies are investigating the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik at 8236 128th Street in Surrey, British Columbia, Thursday morning, July 14, 2022. Malik, a prominent Surrey businessman, was acquitted in 2015 of the Air India bombing that killed hundreds people in 1985 (Photo by Jason Payne/PNG) Photo by Jason Payne/PNG December 11, 2000 – Ripudaman Singh Malik serves something at Khalsa School in this October 1995 photo Handout photo /Vancouver Sun
Malik also traveled to India for the first time since his acquittal in 2019 after the Indian government granted him a visa. Then earlier this year he wrote a letter to India’s controversial Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, thanking him for the work he has done on behalf of Sikhs.
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“I am writing to you to express my sincere gratitude for the unprecedented positive steps taken by yourselves to redress the long-read demands and grievances of the Sikhs,” Malik wrote, according to the Hindustan Times.
He cites the elimination of blacklists like the one he was once on and the reopening of criminal cases against murder suspects during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as well as the declaration that the riots were in fact genocide.
Some were critical of Malik for offering his support to Modi.
The now elderly man had a long list of enemies.
Surrey RCMP did not release his name, but Postmedia confirmed it with a number of sources.
He was found “suffering from gunshot wounds,” Const. Sarbjit K. Sangha said in a news release. “The man was given first aid by attendants until Emergency Services took over his care. The injured man succumbed to his injuries at the scene.”
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She said that “this appears to be a targeted shooting. A suspicious vehicle was located in the 12200 block of 82nd Avenue fully engulfed in fire.
“The investigation is at an early stage and police are still searching for the suspects and a second vehicle that may have been used as a getaway vehicle.”
Various police agencies are investigating the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik at 8236 128th Street in Surrey, British Columbia, Thursday morning, July 14, 2022. Malik, a prominent Surrey businessman, was acquitted in 2015 of the Air India bombing that killed hundreds people in 1985. Pictured is an unidentified woman with a hidden identity at the crime scene. (Photo by Jason Payne/PNG) Photo by Jason Payne/PNG
Former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh first met Malik in the 1970s, when the local South Asian community in Vancouver was very small.
Malik had opened his clothing store, Papillon, in Gastown. The two men and their wives were communicating. Malik was not yet a supporter of the Sikh separatist movement Khalistan, Dosanjh said on Thursday.
Dosanjh did the legal work pro bono to help Malik set up his first two charities, the Satnam Trust and the Satnam Education Society.
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“He was a ganja-smoking hippie who had a ponytail and then became an extremist warrior. It is difficult to explain,” said Dosanjh. “Something happened to him.”
Dosanjh believes it is possible that Malik’s recent support for the Indian government, which he once reviled, was a motive for the murder.
“Whenever someone is brought down by violence, one is saddened,” Dosange said. “Mr Malik has seemingly played with violence in his life and it has probably come back to haunt him.
March 16, 2005 The judge in the Air India bombing trial found Ripudaman Singh Malik (left) not guilty of the bombing of Air India Flight 182. He is escorted by a sheriff and an unidentified man to a waiting car. Province staff photo by Gerry Carman [PNG Merlin Archive] Photo by Gerry Kahrmann /Province
Kash Heed, a longtime Vancouver police officer and former British Columbia attorney general, said Malik’s killing had similarities to recent crime sprees in which a masked gunman blew himself up, fled and was later found in a burned-out getaway car.
“This has the earmarks of a paid hit against an individual. We know of several of these strikes in the Lower Mainland that are related to gang violence,” he said.
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And he said Malik’s recent support for the Indian government may have been the motive for the shooting.
“It was such a prolonged event that I’m actually surprised he survived this many years,” Heed said. “I think it has to do with his political advocacy.”
Several people who have testified against Malik in Air India’s prosecution declined to comment on Thursday.
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