2 acquitted in Air India bombings

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2 acquitted in Air India bombings
Last Updated Thu, 17 Mar 2005 07:07:11 EST
CBC News

VANCOUVER - A judge has found millionaire Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of conspiracy and murder in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people.

* INDEPTH: Air India

The men were also acquitted on charges related to a separate bomb that killed two Japanese baggage handlers the same day.
Ajaib Singh Bagri and his daughter answer questions after the verdict in Vancouver, Wednesday.

Justice Ian Bruce Josephson of the British Columbia Supreme Court said he simply did not believe the testimony of witnesses who linked the men to the two bombs. Calling them inconsistent, he said the accounts surfaced too late to be credible.

He did, however, accept the Crown's theory that there was a conspiracy to bring down two Air India flights by planting bombs in suitcases that were placed on planes leaving the Vancouver airport.

Malik, Bagri issue statements

Malik did not speak as he left the courthouse and climbed into a waiting car. His family posted a statement reacting to the ruling on a website called www.notguilty.org, however.

"Our family deeply sympathizes with the families of those that died in this horrific tragedy," it said. "The anger and sadness that the families are going through because of today's decision should be directed towards the RCMP and Crown. They had given these families a false hope of justice by proceeding with a case without merit."

Speaking through a statement read by his youngest daughter, Bagri expressed relief at being free after four and a half years in jail.

"I have been accused of horrendous crimes," he said. "But I want to repeat publicly today, and have told the authorities numerous times since 1985, that I had absolutely no involvement in any of these criminal activities."

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