Surprise Air India witness should be heard fast: Crown

Monday, Jan 19, 2004

VANCOUVER (CP) - A surprise witness against an accused bomber should be heard quickly, the Crown told the Air India trial Monday, citing concerns about the man's security and the cost involved in keeping him safe.

"The RCMP, appropriately, has put in place security for this gentleman and his family," Joe Bellows told the court. "I don't want to be crass, but there are costs involved in that." The witness, who came to police with information against Ripudaman Singh Malik in mid December, has significant evidence, Bellows said.

The Crown has already concluded its case against Malik and is part way through the case against his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri.

The two are charged with conspiracy in the bombing of an Air India flight in 1985 which killed 329 people, and a separate explosion in Tokyo that killed two baggage handlers.

Bellows said he wants to put his new witness on the stand within two or three weeks. The defence wants to wait until the Crown has completed all of its arguments - expected to take at least until the end of March - to allow for time to prepare to cross-examine the man.

Malik's lawyer, David Crossin said things would go a lot faster if he could speak with the surprise witness. Bellows said that's unlikely considering the security concerns. A compromise would be to fit the witness in after the evidence against Bagri has been heard, which should take another five weeks.

Justice Ian Bruce Josephson of the B.C. Supreme Court said he has to give the defence the time it needs to prepare and asked the two lawyers to try to work out a time that works for both sides. He said he would revisit the issue in two weeks. That prompted sighs of frustration from relatives of the victims in the court who are infuriated by the slow progress of the trial, now one of the most expensive in Canadian history.

It is in its 78th day, with the Crown expected to need at least two and a half months to wrap up its case. Then the defence will begin its arguments. The trial is bogged down while lawyers argue over whether one of the key witnesses against Bagri should be declared a hostile witness.

She told police many times that he came to her house on the eve of the bombing and asked to borrow her car to drop bags off at the airport. The explosives that downed the Air India plane were hidden in suitcases.

Now she claims she doesn't remember any of that. The Crown played a tape of an interview she had with RCMP Cpl. Doug Best in 1996 where, after telling the same incriminating story for 11 years, she started to say she couldn't remember why Bagri came to her door. Nor
could she remember when the visit occurred but she thought it was before the attack. "Is that right? I could be totally wrong," the woman said Monday, wearing jeans and a white sweater. She can't be identified under a court order.

Court has heard she was petrified that allegations that she had an affair with Bagri would be made public if she testified. She told police she was also afraid for her safety. She said everything she told investigators was what she could remember at the time and that now, her memory isn't fresh. "I don't have things written down," she explained, adding, "I don't have any reason to lie."

Police called her in for another interview a month later to try and nail down her story. An interview expert on hand to advise Best recognized the woman as the mother of one of the boys on a hockey team he coached.

He was sent in to try to persuade her to tell the whole story. "He said sometimes people put up psychological blocks when they may not want to remember something," Best said.

"(The woman) became emotional and admitted she could in fact vividly recall the evening Mr. Bagri came to her residence."

In tears, she told him he came for the car to take bags to the airport.

If Josephson rules she is hostile, statements she gave to police will be considered instead of testimony she gave on the stand, which was full of 'I don't remember' and 'I don't know.' " Bagri and Malik are facing murder and conspiracy charges in the deaths of 331 people killed
by two bomb explosions targeting Air India planes. The Crown believes Bagri and others placed bomb-laden suitcases aboard two flights
leaving Vancouver and connecting with Air India planes in Tokyo and Toronto.

One of the bombs exploded aboard Mumbai-bound Air India Flight 182, killing 329 people - mostly Canadians. The other bomb went off about an hour earlier, killing two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport while they were transferring luggage meant for another Air India plane.