Air India Kanishka Bombing Convict Released From Canadian Prison

Inderjit Singh Reyat, a Sikh who emigrated to Canada, had served more than two decades in jail for building the two suitcase bombs involved in the plot, intended for two Air India Boeing 747s.

The second hit its target: it exploded aboard Air India Flight 182 over the Atlantic Ocean as it neared Ireland, tearing apart the aircraft and killing all 329 people onboard. Within an hour of the first blast, a separate luggage bomb destined for another Air India flight, bound for Mumbai from Tokyo, killed two people and injured four before reaching Japan’s Narita airport.

Yet twice before when Reyat was eligible for statutory release after manslaughter convictions, government applications were made for special parole hearings that led to Reyat being imprisoned until the end of his full sentence.

The only person ever convicted over the 1985 Air India bombings was released from a Canadian prison.

The person who later checked the baggage containing the explosive devices at the Vancouver airport never boarded the jetliners.

The conditions imposed upon Reyat will require him to avoid any contact with victim families, or certain individuals with involvement in political activities.

“Twenty-nine families were completely wiped out – husband, wife, children, they were all gone”.

“The Parole Board can not in law say oh this guy should be referred for detention”.

Reyat was convicted of perjury in 2010 for lying to the court in 2003 during the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were acquitted in the terrorist attack.

He also maintains his affiliation to a group of Sikh nationalists based in Canada, although the ties were “inactive” during his incarceration, according to the parole board.

The Parole Board of Canada said eight conditions have been attached to Reyat’s release, including the rare demand that he remain in a halfway house. “So, I don’t think these people – I don’t know what to call them, to tell the truth”.

He must also obtain counseling to address violent tendencies, a lack of empathy and “cognitive distortions” or what one official described as his exaggerated beliefs.

Reyat got nine years for perjury, the longest such sentence ever given in Canada, although he was given credit for time served awaiting trial.

Canadian federal police continue to investigate the bombings, 30 years on.