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1985 Air India Bombing: Killer Sentenced to life imprisonment Over Businessman’s Murder

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  • Hitman Tanner Fox sentenced to life in prison for the 2022 murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik.
  • Malik was acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing, Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack.
  • Family pleads for killers to reveal who ordered the assassination.

A contract killer involved in the assassination of a man acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing has been sentenced to life in prison in Canada, with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Tanner Fox, 24, received his sentence on Tuesday from a British Columbia Supreme Court judge. His co-conspirator, Jose Lopez, who also pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik in 2022, is set to be sentenced on Friday.

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The ruling followed an emotional court session, during which Malik’s grieving relatives pleaded with Fox to reveal the identity of those who ordered the hit.

“We plead with you to reveal the names of the people who hired you,” Malik’s daughter-in-law, Sundeep Kaur Dhaliwal, urged in the New Westminster courtroom.

Fox and Lopez had initially faced first-degree murder charges but admitted guilt to the lesser charge on the eve of their trial.

Malik, 75, was ambushed and shot multiple times while sitting in his car outside his family business in Surrey, British Columbia, on the morning of July 14, 2022. A burnt-out vehicle was discovered nearby, a detail often linked to professional killings.

Prosecutor Matthew Stacey told the court that the murder was a carefully orchestrated execution.

“They were financially compensated for killing him,” Stacey stated.

The assassination occurred over a decade after Malik was acquitted in Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack.

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182, en route from Canada to India, exploded off the Irish coast, killing all 329 passengers and crew—most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin. Around the same time, a second bomb detonated prematurely at a Japanese airport, killing two baggage handlers.

The bombings, widely believed to have been orchestrated by Canada-based Sikh extremists in retaliation for India’s 1984 military assault on the Golden Temple—Sikhism’s holiest shrine—remain the worst act of terrorism in Canadian history.

After a lengthy two-year trial, Malik and his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in 2005 after a judge ruled that key witness testimonies were unreliable.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Fox and Lopez were hired to assassinate Malik, but investigators have yet to determine who ordered the killing.

Malik’s family has repeatedly urged the convicted men to cooperate with authorities to bring the mastermind to justice.

FURTHER READING

Addressing the court on Tuesday, Dhaliwal voiced her family’s ongoing fears.

“This fear and anxiety comes from not knowing who hired you,” she said to Fox. “Are we next?”

Fox’s lawyer, Richard Fowler, revealed that his client was born in Thailand and adopted at age three by a family in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

“It’s impossible to say where he went awry in his youth that led him to this horrible offence,” Fowler remarked.

In court, Fox stood to express remorse for his actions.

“I’m sorry for all the pain and hurt that I’ve caused,” he said.

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