Defence denies Bagri
link to disaster
VANCOUVER, July 08, 2004
By ROBERT MATAS
Globe and Mail
Ajaib Singh Bagri admitted he was partly responsible
for the Air-India crash during a conversation in New Jersey shortly
after the disaster, a U.S. police informant told the court earlier this
year.
However, Mr. Bagri's employment records show he was
at work at a mill outside Kamloops, B.C., around the time of the alleged
confession, the court was told yesterday. The records also show that
Mr. Bagri was at work in Kamloops in June, 1985, on the day it is alleged
that the co-conspirators were in Burnaby planning the bombings, defence
lawyer Michael Code said.
On the 161st day of the trial, Mr. Bagri's defence team
started to pick away at evidence from prosecution witnesses linking
Mr. Bagri directly to the twin explosions on June 23, 1985, that killed
331 people.
An FBI informant who cannot be identified in the media
told the court that Mr. Bagri admitted some responsibility for the bombings
in a conversation at a gas station outside New York a few days before
Sept 25, 1985.
The informant also said he could not remember exactly
when the conversation took place. In a 1997 statement to police, the
informant said the conversation was a few weeks after the Air-India
disaster.
Mr. Bagri's work record shows that Mr. Bagri was at
work in Kamloops every day of the week leading up to the Air-India disaster
and in September, Mr. Code said.
The prosecution's evidence does not fit with independent
records of his whereabouts around the time of the bombings in 1985,
he also said.
Joe Davies, a union representative from the mill where
Mr. Bagri worked, confirmed Mr. Bagri's work records in court. He said
attendance records show Mr. Bagri took a two-week holiday in February,
1985, and a two-month leave of absence beginning Oct. 17, 1985. The
rest of the year, he was at the mill.