Angry Sikhs sought revenge after Golden Temple raid, witness says

The Canadian Press
March 8, 2004

VANCOUVER (CP) _ A former member of an alleged Sikh extremist organization testified at the Air India bombing trial Monday he does not believe in using violence to achieve a Sikh state.

But, said the man, who turned FBI informant after the 1985 airline bombings, the 1984 Indian army raids on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, enraged members of the faith.

''We were angry,'' he told Justice Ian Josephson, often speaking with the aid of an interpreter. ''We all wanted to retaliate and take revenge.''

The testimony came as defence lawyers for accused bomber Ajaib Singh Bagri attempted to poke holes in the credibility and motives of the key witness.

The witness reiterated testimony that he had financed airline tickets for two fellow members of the extremist Sikh Dashmesh Regiment as they tried to escape from New Orleans in 1985.

He said the men were part of a failed conspiracy to kill Bhajan Lal, the chief minister of the Indian state of Haryana, who was in the city for eye surgery. They were wanted by authorities after the capture of four other conspirators.

The pair were early prime suspects in the Air India bombings and wanted by both the FBI and the RCMP.

The witness denied full knowledge of the New Orleans murder plot.

And he said he was only later aware the pair were also suspects in the Air India disaster from reading the newspapers.

He denied reports the Dashmesh Regiment had claimed responsibility for the bombings.

''We never took claim for the disaster,'' he said.

When one of the two men, Dalbir Singh, died in a 1988 Seattle car crash, the witness testified he went there to help organize the funeral.

When defense lawyer Richard Peck asked him to reveal the names of others the witness met at the Seattle Sikh temple, the man suggested revealing them might not be appropriate.

With the witness out of the courtroom, Peck told the court an FBI document indicated the man and accomplices wanted ``to spirit away the body'' so it could not be identified.

The prosecution later admitted the document was fabricated by the FBI and that the incident had not happened.

''It's not something he can be cross-examined on,'' said Crown lawyer Richard Cairns.

''He had nothing to do with it. This is a document that was made up by the FBI agent.''

Ron Parrish, the FBI agent who handled the informer, is in Vancouver before he takes the witness stand next week.

Josephson asked Cairns to go through the documents with Parrish to indicate what was accurate and what was false.

The court was told the creation of such documents is FBI practice to protect informants.

''These documents are prepared by the FBI for a legitimate purpose,'' Cairns said. Peck was clearly frustrated.

''We simply don't know which of these documents contain false information,'' he said.

He had planned to examine the witness on another document advising the witness's name was found on a list of people about to attend mercenary training.

The list was supposedly found in the briefcase of man convicted in the Lal assassination attempt.

Last week, the witness told Josephson that Bagri had confessed to involvement in two 1985 bombings that killed 331 people.

'"We did this,''' the man said Bagri told him when they met outside a New Jersey gas station several weeks after the 1985 bombings.

The witness told Peck about his involvement with two extremist Sikh organizations, the Dashmesh Regiment and the Sikh Student Federation while in New York.

He also confirmed he had attended meetings organized by the Babbar Khalsa, another Sikh terrorist group in which Talwinder Singh Parmar, the now-dead alleged mastermind of the Air India bombings, was a major figure.

The man's evidence proceeded after debate last week as to whether the defence could cross-examine the witness on the contents of an FBI memo inadvertently disclosed by the Crown.

Bagri's lawyers argued the contents of the memo about the witness's past involvements with Sikh groups were relevant to the Air India disaster.

The witness was paid almost $460,000 to testify and had asked for another $200,000 in December.

Bagri and co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik are charged with conspiracy and murder in two bombings on June 23, 1985.

An initial blast at Tokyo's Narita Airport killed two baggage handlers. Less than an hour later, Air India Flight 182 exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

Monday was the 100th day of testimony in the trial.