Police have identified a vehicle linked to the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik in Surrey Thursday, a man acquitted in the Air India bombing in 1985.
READ MORE: Ripudaman Singh Malik, man acquitted in Air India bombing, shot dead in B.C.: witness
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) released CCTV footage on Friday of a white Honda CRV believed to be used by those responsible for the killing.
White Honda CRV believed to be used in killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik. Supplied by Integrated Homicide Investigation Team
Police said the SUV waited for Malik outside his family business at 8236 128 Street Thursday. The vehicle parked around 7:00 a.m. and waited there for more than an hour, according to IHIT.
Police added Malik was shot several times at 9:27 a.m.
Shortly after the shooting, the white SUV was found on fire around 82 Avenue and 122A Street, just a few streets over.
Sgt. David Lee, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, investigators are looking at CCTV footage to see if the actual shooting was caught on camera.
Investigators are also looking into whether the vehicle was stolen or not.
Police said this was a targeted attack, adding they cannot say if it’s connected to Malik’s past.
Robert Gordon, criminologist at Simon Fraser University, said unless Malik shifted to illegal drug activities, this is something that can obviously be traced back to his past.
“The only thing I find surprising is that it’s taken so long for this kind of informal justice,” he said.
But according to Gordon, Thursday’s shooting does bears the hallmarks of gang hit.
“Right down to the burning of a vehicle in the vicinity which is always something that characterizes these kinds of killings,” Gordon said. “The assailants attempt to get rid of the evidence.”
Lee said he understands Malik was a high-profile figure and there are lots of questions about a motive.
“However, we urge [people] not to speculate as to the motive as our homicide investigators will be following the evidence.” Lee added.
Anyone with dashcam footage from the area of the shooting between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, or who might have seen the SUV and the people inside, is asked to contact IHIT.
AIR INDIA CASE HISTORY
Malik and his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, were found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in a pair of Air India bombings that killed 331 people on June 23, 1985.
B.C. Supreme Court heard during the trial that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver’s airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182.
The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.
About an hour later, a bomb destined for another Air India plane exploded prematurely at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died.
Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the bombings, testified for the Crown at Malik and Bagri’s trial and was later convicted of perjury.
With files from the Canadian Press.
Mackenzie Read
