VANCOUVER, July 9, 2004
By Rbert Matas
GlobeandMail

The 1985 work records of Air-India defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri are filled with errors, inconsistencies and omissions, the B.C. Supreme Court was told yesterday.

Mr. Bagri worked in 1985 as a forklift operator at a pulp mill outside Kamloops. Defence lawyer Michael Code has used work records at the mill to argue that Mr. Bagri could not have been involved in the Air-India conspiracy.

The trial has heard that payroll administrators referred to employees' attendance records as "the bible," because they relied so heavily on the document. "We refer back to it daily," administrator Annette Donchi told the court.

But Ms. Donchi confirmed during cross-examination that some record keeping was haphazard and included mistakes. "I guess there is a couple of errors in the bible," prosecutor Richard Cairns said.

The records indicate Mr. Bagri was at work in Kamloops in June, 1985, when it is alleged co-conspirators were in Burnaby planning the bombings. The 19-year-old documents also show Mr. Bagri was in Kamloops in September, when it is alleged that he confessed his involvement in the conspiracy to acquaintances during a conversation at a New Jersey gas station.

However, the company documents may not be a reliable guide to Mr. Bagri's whereabouts at crucial moments in the lead up to the disaster. In cross-examination, Ms. Donchi identified several errors in the work records.

Mr. Bagri's birth date was incorrectly recorded. The wrong year was entered on two occasions. Notations indicating days off were left out on some dates, and a blue marker used to indicate an additional day off was not used in 1985.

Ms. Donchi said she was not surprised that errors were discovered in the attendance sheets. Human beings sometimes make mistakes, she said. She also said she had no firsthand information about Mr. Bagri's whereabouts.

Mr. Bagri's immediate supervisor at the pulp mill would be the only person at work who would know when Mr. Bagri was at work, she confirmed. The supervisor has not been called to testify at the trial.

Mr. Bagri and co-defendant Ripudaman Singh Malik are charged with murder in the death of 331 people killed by two bombs on two Air-India flights on June 23, 1985.