VANCOUVER
August 9, 2004
Canadian Press

(CP) _ A key witness against one of the accused in the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings wanted money from the accused to flee to India to avoid testifying, the trial heard Monday.

That witness, known as John because his identity is protected by a court order, was paid almost $460,000 by the RCMP to testify and had asked for another $200,000 in December.

John testified in March that accused bomber Ajaib Singh Bagri confessed to involvement in two 1985 bombings which killed 331 people when the pair met at a New York gas station several weeks after the attacks.

'"We did this,''' John said Bagri told him.

But Kamal Jit told court Monday that John, a leader of the militant Sikh Dashmesh Regiment, was nervous about testifying against Bagri.

At a meeting at Jit's New York home in 2003, John said he wanted a message passed to Bagri's relatives.

"He said: 'If Ajaib Singh's family gives me some money, then maybe I will run away to Uttar Pradesh in India,''' Jit told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Josephson.

Jit, a New York cab driver who is testifying on behalf of Bagri, said John claimed he was under extreme pressure from the FBI and could not recant his statements about Bagri's confession.

'"I know that he's innocent,''' Jit said John told him at his New York home, '"But there is so much pressure on me that I cannot go back.'''

Jit said John told him he had been concerned authorities would think the Dashmesh Regiment was involved in the bombings. John had expressed those concerns to Bagri, a member of the militant Sikh Babbar Khalsa group, during the gas station meeting.

Jit said John called him on his return to New York after his March testimony at the trial in Vancouver. The next day, Jit said he was visited in New York by a female FBI agent, prosecutor Richard Cairns and another lawyer.

Jit said he has known the Bagri family since he lived in India.

The defence evidence is expected to wrap up by the end of the summer and the trial is expected to adjourn to allow both sides to prepare their final submissions.

A verdict could come late in the year or in early 2005.

Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are charged with eight counts, including conspiracy and murder, in connection with two bombings on June 23, 1985 that killed 331 persons.

The first blast ripped through Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers who were transferring a Vancouver suitcase to an Air India flight.

Later, Air India Flight 182, en route from Toronto to India, exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

The Crown alleges the pair were part of a group of B.C. Sikh separatists who targeted India's national airline to retaliate against the Indian Army's attack a year earlier on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.