1985 Narita International Airport Bombing - Bombing

Bombing

Fifty-five minutes after, at 08:14 Irish time, Air India Flight 182 exploded mid-air and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Ireland, killing 329 people. The incidents are believed to be related, and are connected to the Sikh separatist group operating in Canada known as the Babbar Khalsa. It is also believed that the Narita bomb detonated an hour ahead of schedule because the terrorists were unaware that while Canada uses daylight saving time, Japan does not.

The only man ever convicted of any involvement in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. He received a ten-year sentence of two counts of manslaughter and four explosives charges after being found gulity in a Vancouver court room in May 1991. In 2003, weeks before the start of the Air India Trial, Reyat cut a deal with prosecutors. In exchange for pleading gulity to manslaughter in the Flight 182 bombing, he was sentenced to five years in prison and was to testify against the two other men tried in Canada for these incidents, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri. They were found not guilty by Justice Ian Josephson as prosecutors had not been able to meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As part of their verdict Justice Josephson said this about Reyat's testimony at their trial:

Even the most sympathetic of listeners could only conclude, as do I, that his evidence was patently and pathetically fabricated in an attempt to minimize his involvement in his crime to an extreme degree, while refusing to reveal relevant information he clearly possesses. His hollow expression of remorse for his crime must have been a bitter pill for the families of the victims.

In 2006 Crown Counsel in British Columbia announced they would be charging Inderjit Singh Reyat with perjury based upon his testimony at the Air India Trial. It is alleged that he committed perjury 27 times during his testimony.