Ripudaman Singh Malik (centre) leaves B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver after he was found not guilty in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 on March 16, 2005.RICHARD LAM/The Canadian Press
For the second time in as many months, a hit man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years for the public slaying of former Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik in July, 2022.
And again, the British Columbia Supreme Court in New Westminster heard, the second gunman expressed remorse for the second-degree murder, but did not reveal who hired him and his co-defendant to carry out the daytime hit, which shocked the Sikh community in Surrey and raised questions about the potential the Indian state was somehow involved.
Sundeep Kaur Dhaliwal, Mr. Malik’s daughter-in-law, addressed defendant Jose Lopez in court Friday, as she did at the end of January for the sentencing of co-accused Tanner Fox. She pleaded with Mr. Lopez to name their employer and said her family is shaken every time news breaks of a shooting or foreign interference among India’s Sikh diaspora.
“The fear and anxiety comes from not knowing who hired you,” said Ms. Dhaliwal, who is a lawyer in Surrey.
The killing occurred near the onset of a wave of homicides, extortions and other violent crimes across Canada that the RCMP and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have linked to the Indian government of Narendra Modi.
Last year, Mr. Malik’s son was contacted by the RCMP, who told him they had a “duty to warn” him of a credible threat to his life, but the source of the danger remains unknown.
Justice Terry Schultes accepted the joint submission from the Crown and the defence Thursday, but worried the public might be displeased by news of the plea deal and the sentence of second-degree murder, not first degree. The prosecution had characterized the killing as “a cold-blooded execution carried out for financial compensation.”
Justice Schultes clarified that both types of murder can be charged in intentional killings, and both result in life prison sentences.
“I do think something should be said about it in order to avoid any public misunderstanding or loss of confidence in the justice system,” he said.
Justice Schultes said Mr. Lopez was just 23 at the time of the killing and he has the support of his mother and three sisters, who were in court – two factors that bode well for a potential rehabilitation after he becomes eligible for parole in the summer of 2042.
However, Justice Schultes noted his disappointment in Mr. Lopez for assaulting his co-accused as they entered their guilty pleas last fall.
“I take it as an indication that he’s unfortunately, at times, still acting according to impulses that take him outside the norms of civilized behaviour, especially in a courtroom setting. Although such actions obviously pale in comparison to the shooting, those impulses, as also reflected in his record for assault, are the things he will need to work hard on.”
Mr. Lopez did not address the court, but his lawyer, Alice Vo, said he was remorseful for the killing and gave a brief biography of her client. Mr. Lopez was born in Winnipeg, then moved to Texas for about a year before coming to B.C. and moving quite often between Vancouver’s suburbs, she said. This home life hurt his ability to make friends and focus in school, she said.
He dropped out in Grade 9 and moved out when he was 15 to work several different jobs, including in restaurants, as a labourer on construction sites and, most recently, as a tire technician at several automotive shops, the court heard.
She said a year before the slaying, Mr. Lopez took a course at Vancouver Career College and wants to ultimately become an electrician.
She did not touch on how he was hired to kill Mr. Malik.
Mr. Malik was among three people charged with the Air India bombing of June 23, 1985, which killed 329 people, including 280 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, aboard an airliner that originated in Toronto and exploded off the coast of Ireland. Two baggage handlers at the Tokyo airport were also killed in another explosion the same day.
Mr. Malik spent four and a half years in detention before being acquitted in 2005 along with Kamloops sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri.