Vancouver/New Delhi: Two men have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the contract killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, an Indo-Canadian Sikh acquitted in the tragic 1985 Air India Kanishka terrorist bombings that killed more than 300 people.
Ripudaman Singh Malik was fatally shot in Surrey in July 2022. Tanner Fox and Jose Lopez, both of whom have long criminal records, were charged with first-degree murder.
In the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Monday, both Fox and Lopez pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, global news reported.
Based on the agreed statement of facts, the two men were contracted to kill Malik. They shot him seven times, mostly in the head and neck, as he sat in the driver’s seat of his red Tesla in front of his business.
The court heard Crown had an overwhelming amount of evidence tying Lopez and Fox to the murder, including security video, their DNA found on masks and a glove, bullet casings found at the scene and traced to handguns found in a bag linked to the men.
Police also recovered more than $16,000 in cash. The evidence did not shed light on who hired the men and why.
The court heard an agreed statement of facts that revealed the two men had been hired to kill Malik.
However, in the British Columbia courtroom on Monday, a shocking scene unfolded as a fistfight broke out between the two men after they pleaded guilty to murdering Malik.
The two men, both sitting in the prisoners’ box, had been separated on opposite sides of the room. Lopez raced across the prisoners’ box and began punching Fox in the head.
Lopez delivered multiple blows before the sheriffs separated the men, brought them to their knees and handcuffed them.
In a statement, Malik’s family urged the two men to cooperate with police to bring down whoever directed the killing.
“Until the parties responsible for hiring them and directing this assassination are brought to justice, the work remains incomplete,” the family said.
Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to the pair of Air India bombings. The Air India bombings of June 23, 1985, killed 329 people, including 280 Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Two baggage handlers at the Tokyo airport were also killed in another explosion the same day.
The attacks are the largest mass killing in Canadian history and set off an international investigation that ended in just one person being convicted, and multitudes of criticism aimed at the RCMP and federal agencies.
Bomb-maker Inderjit Singh Reyat was later convicted in the attack, while alleged mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar died.
Crown and defence lawyers have agreed that Fox and Lopez should not be eligible for parole for 20 years.
The case will return to court on Oct. 31 for a sentencing hearing.
Malik was a businessman who owned companies that included Papillon Eastern Imports Ltd., a distributor of women’s apparel from Asia.
Malik spent 4½ years in detention before his acquittal.
His 2022 slaying put a spotlight on continuing litigation between him and Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed a year later in June 2023 outside a gurudwara in BC. The two were involved in a dispute related to Malik printing the Sikh holy book – the Guru Granth Sahib – in Surrey in violation of a religious edict, the Globe and Mail reported.
