Ripudaman’s killer gets life term in Canada
A Canadian court has sentenced a 24-year-old man to life imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a suspect in the 1985 Air India bombing who was later acquitted, according to local media reports.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge on Tuesday sentenced Tanner Fox to life with no parole for 20 years for killing Malik, the CBC news reported.
On July 15, 2022, Malik was shot while he was sitting in his car in Surrey, British Columbia. Malik and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted of mass murder and conspiracy charges in 2005 related to the Air India bombing. Two weeks after Malik’s murder, the police arrested Fox, a resident of Abbotsford, British Columbia, and his accomplice Jose Lopez, from New Westminster.
They pleaded guilty in October last to the second-degree murder of Malik. Lopez will be sentenced on Friday. Citing prosecutors, media reports said the two men were hired and paid to kill Malik. However, they did not reveal who hired them, reports said.
The bombing of AI flight 182, flying from Canada to India, off the Irish coast killed all 329 persons on board, most of them Canadian citizens visiting relatives in India.
