A trial convicted the hitman who murdered the Air India bombing suspect who received acquittal in 1985 Air India bombings to life imprisonment. Tanner Fox made his guilty plea along with Jose Lopez at October 2024 for killing Ripudaman Singh Malik through second-degree murder.
June 30 marked the moment when Vancouver authorities discovered Malik dead in what was identified as a shooting in a nearby suburb. Both Fox and Lopez maintain their silence about who paid them for the contract. The sentencing hearing for Lopez has been scheduled for February 6.
The Canadian courts initially acquitted Malik and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri twenty years ago because investigators failed to produce evidence connecting them to the Air India Flight 182 bombing. Before the September 11 attacks the Kanishka bombing stood as the most destructive airborne terrorist act in history. Flight 182 carrying 329 passengers lost control as it headed to New Delhi from Montreal with its crew through Ireland’s waters on June 23, 1985. A second bomb targeting Air India flight 181 caused death at Japan’s Narita airport by blowing up among staff operatives. 
A large immigrant Sikh population in Vancouver allowed investigators to track both bombing explosions. Operations targeted Indian forces after Indian soldiers invaded Amritsar’s Golden Temple in their crackdown against Sikh separatists. The only person convicted for the bombings is Inderjit Singh Reyat who built the explosives and lied during the trials of Malik and Bagri.
Officials from Canada announced the ongoing active status of their investigation regarding the 1985 terrorism attack.
