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RCMP submits report in 1985 bombing of Air-India's flight 182

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have sent a long-awaited report to government prosecutors so they can assess whether charges will be filed in the terrorist bombing of an Air-India jetliner in 1985.

All 329 people on board Air-India flight 182, including 280 Canadians, were killed when the plane, bound from Canada to London, blew up over the coast of Ireland.

The RCMP has been hunting for the bombers since then, in what the force calls the most complex investigation in its history.

In a media release yesterday, the RCMP said the submission of the report to prosecutors does not mean the filing of charges is imminent. No time-frame was set for the review process, and the police declined to reveal any details about their evidence.

Criminal charges would be approved only if prosecutors determine there is "a substantial likelihood of a conviction and it is in the public interest to proceed,'' the RCMP said.

The RCMP has faced repeated criticism from relatives of the victims who have complained the investigation has dragged on too long.

The police believe a group of Sikh separatists living in British Columbia planned to blow up two Air- India jets as part of a terrorist campaign.

In June 1985, two bomb-laden suitcases were checked in for flights destined to connect with two Air-India flights.

The first bomb exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers who were unloading a Canadian Pacific flight from Vancouver. Less than an hour later, flight 182 -- which also originated in Vancouver -- exploded.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician from Vancouver Island, is serving 10 years for manslaughter in connection with the Narita deaths. He has been identified as a suspect in the flight 182 bombing.

UNI

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