Sikh man, acquitted in 1985 Air India bombings, shot dead in Canada; police investigate motive
Toronto (PTI): The Canadian police have said they are still working to determine the motive behind the targeted killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a 75-year-old Sikh man acquitted in the tragic 1985 Air India Kanishka terrorist bombing case.
Malik was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia on Thursday. Malik and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to the two bombings in 1985 that killed 331 people, the CBC News said.
The report cited a witness who said he heard three shots and pulled Malik from his red Tesla bleeding from a neck wound.
Another witness from a nearby business identified that the victim of the shooting was Malik.
Surrey Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said a man shot at that location at around 9:30 am succumbed to his injuries at the scene. They say it appears to be a targeted shooting and are not releasing the victim's name.
The police said they located a suspect vehicle which was engulfed in fire, the report added.
Another report in ABC News said that while police had not initially released the victim's identity, it confirmed it after Malik's son, Jaspreet Malik, posted a statement on social media about his father's shooting.
The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing, Malik's son wrote on Facebook.
He said that his father had been wrongly charged in the case and the court concluded that "there was no evidence against him".
The media and RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] never seemed to accept the court's decision and I pray today's tragedy is not related, he said.
In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said: "We are aware of Mr Malik's background, though at this time we are still working to determine the motive. We can confirm that the shooting appears to be targeted and there is not believed to be any further risk to the public."
The 1985 Air India bombing is among the worst terrorist attacks in Canadian history and in the history of the airline.
On June 23, 1985, the Air India flight 182, carrying 329 people, including 268 Canadian citizens and 24 Indian citizens, flew from Toronto and stopped in Montreal from where it was en route to London and then onwards to its final destination Bombay.
The plane was flying 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean when a suitcase bomb exploded in the front cargo, killing all on board.
Another bomb was meant to be planted in an Air India flight scheduled to take off from Japan but it exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport killing two baggage handlers.
The CBC News report said that reaction to Malik's death was mixed. While Malik's friends said they lost a hero of the Sikh community, former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, a former acquaintance of Malik's, said he was a controversial figure.
"One of the other complicating factors is he made a recent visit to India where he wrote a letter in support of [Prime Minister] Modi and his policies and I think that may have reverberated and had implications within the community," Dosanjh said in the report.
The report added that in recent years, Malik had served as chairman with Khalsa School and managed two of the private schools' campuses in Surrey and Vancouver. He was also president of the Vancouver-based Khalsa Credit Union (KCU), which has more than 16,000 members.
He is survived by his wife, five children, four daughters-in-law, and eight grandchildren.
Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted on various charges and spent 30 years in prison for helping to make the bombs, and for lying during trials, including Malik's. He was released in 2016 after serving two-thirds of his perjury sentence.
Reyat was the only person convicted for the Kanishka bombing blamed on Khalistani extremists seeking revenge for the Indian Army's action at the Golden Temple to flush out militants in 1984.
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BESCOM to organise EV expo for Secretariat employees in Jan 2025
Bengaluru (PTI): To encourage the adoption of electric vehicles (EV), Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) announced on Friday that a special EV fair will be organised for the Secretariat employees in January 2025.
During a meeting at the BESCOM office, Managing Director Mahantesh Bilagi said, "The fair is being organised following a directive of Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh and will be conducted under the supervision of Energy Minister K J George and Additional Chief Secretary of the Energy Department Gaurav Gupta."
According to him, the event aims to educate attendees about the benefits of environmentally friendly EVs and to encourage the adoption of two-wheeled EVs.
"During the fair, dealer discounts to government employees, particularly those in the Secretariat will also be offered. There will also be opportunities for practical demonstrations of the vehicles at the exhibition site," added Bilagi.
He said the Secretariat employees will also benefit from no down payment and low-interest loans to purchase the EV vehicles.
"EV companies are eager to participate and the sales will extend beyond the exhibition, continuing in the future," the Managing Director said.
The state, particularly Bengaluru, has the highest electric vehicle (EV) users, said Bilagi, adding that to support this, the Energy Department has provided essential infrastructure.
"BESCOM's efforts in promoting EV usage have been recognised with the 'Charge India 2024 Excellence' award. This award is a testament to our commitment to establishing excellent charging facilities. Karnataka has the country's most public electric vehicle charging stations, with a total of 5,765 stations, of which 4,462 are located in the Bengaluru Urban district," said Bilagi.
The Secretariat Employees' Association president Ramesh Sanga and other office-bearers, BESCOM Technical Director H J Ramesh as well as senior officials attended the meeting.
