AI bombing witness claims he was threatened

A witness in the 1985 Air India bombing has claimed that he had to endure years of threats and harassment after he testified against an accused.

Narinder Singh Gill, a former Khalsa School volunteer who testified against Ripudaman Singh Malik, said he had to face numerous unexplained vandal attacks, a drive-by shooting and regular taunts for cooperating with police.

"Some people in the community called us traitors," he said.

Gill stood his ground despite the fact Malik was later acquitted in connection with the attack on Kanishka airliner, which killed 329 people, mostly of Indian origin.

Nor would Gill have ever considered leaving his community for the Witness Protection Programme. Instead, he took his own security measures with the help of the Canadian police.

Still, he is frustrated that no one was charged with the vandal attacks or the 2003 drive-by shooting at his house -- events that occurred after he started talking to police in 1997.

The person behind one of the vandal attacks -- Raminder Singh (Mindy) Bhandher -- admitted to it on the stand when he testified as a Malik defence witness.

"Even though Mindy admitted to it in the court, he was never charged," Gill said.

Gill was not the only Air India bombing case witness to complain to police about threats or testify about incidents during the trial.

Joginder Singh Gill testified that he was threatened in connection with his evidence. He said suspected Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar threatened to kill him if he did not change his statement to police.

In an affidavit filed during the trial to get a publication ban on several witness names, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Patricia MacCormack stated: "It has been my experience that potential witnesses have expressed reluctance to be involved at all in the Air India investigation."

That reluctance inevitably increased after the November 1998 murder of newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer -- who had been on the Air India witness list when he was assassinated in the garage of his Surrey home.

Hayer's murder remains un-prosecuted though an unrelated gang trial heard that the slaying was carried out by some young gangsters who were paid $50,000 by the Babbar Khalsa terrorist group to kill Hayer.

Hayer had given three statements to police at the time of his murder about overhearing a confession related to the Air India case. The 62-year-old was in a wheelchair after surviving a 1988 assassination attempt.

Hayer's son Dave, a Liberal MLA for Surrey Tynehead, is expected to testify at the Air India inquiry.       

The inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major, began in June 2006 after Malik and another accused Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted following a $130-million trial in Vancouver two years ago, in a verdict that outraged the victims' families.

"You have to stand up for truth, especially against terrorism," Hayer said in a recent interview, adding: "My dad really believed that. And I still believe that."