Two men have been charged with first degree murder in the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik.
Mr. Malik, a wealthy businessman who was acquitted in the 1985 Air India terror attacks, was fatally shot in the early hours of July 14 as he sat in his vehicle near his Surrey business.
Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, were charged Wednesday. The Integrated Homicide Investigation team has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Malik was among three people charged in the June 23, 1985 bombing that killed 329 people, including 280 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, when a Vancouver-based airliner exploded off the coast of Ireland . Two baggage handlers at Tokyo airport were also killed in another explosion on the same day.
The terror attack, Canada’s worst mass killing, exposed flaws in the country’s security systems and drew attention to Sikh extremism in that country. A public inquiry issued a report in 2010 that blamed a “cascading series of errors” by police, intelligence officers and aviation security regulators and led to then-prime minister Stephen Harper He apologized to the families of the victims.
Police said earlier this month that people driving a white Honda CRV appeared to have been waiting for Mr. Malik for hours before being shot down. That same vehicle was later located burned, not far from the scene of the shooting.
More to come.
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