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Inderjit Singh Reyat, lone convict in 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing released

Two others, allegedly co-conspirators, were acquitted due to lack of evidence and, if the prosecutors are to be believed, due to Reyat's perjury.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person convicted in the 1985 Air India-Kanishka bombing that killed 331 people on board, has been released by the Canadian authorities.

Reyat, who had served two decades in prison, was asked to stay in a halfway house after walking out of prison one year ago.

That condition has now been lifted and Reyat may return to a normal life, including “living in a private residence,” parole board spokesman Patrick Storey told AFP in an email.

Reyat was convicted of making bombs that were stuffed into luggage bags and planted on 2 planes leaving Vancouver, and of perjury (lying in court) to cover up for his co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

Two others, allegedly co-conspirators, were acquitted due to lack of evidence and, if the prosecutors are to be believed, due to Reyat’s perjury.

On June 23, 1985, a bomb exploded aboard Emperor Kanishka or Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 aircraft flying on the Montreal-London route, with New Delhi as the final destination. The bomb, placed in a suitcase and checked into cargo during a stopover in Vancouver, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean in Irish airspace at an altitude of 31,000 feet, killing all 329 on board — 268 Canadian citizens (many of them of Indian origin), 27 Britons and 24 Indians.

The second bomb went off at Japan’s Narita airport, killing 2 baggage handlers as they were transferring cargo to another Air India plane.

Following the blast, Indian authorities launched a crackwdown on Sikh militants. The terrorists were widely believed to avenge the Operation Bluestar at Golden temple.