Vancouver, May 19: Prosecutors hearing the Air India trial have wrapped up their case after hearing evidence for 13 months and interrogating 80 witnesses about the most complex criminal trial in Canadian history. The defence will now begin for key witnesses Ajaib Singh Bagri, a Kamloops millworker and Ripudaman Singh Malik, a businessman. Both men are charged with conspiracy and murder of 329 people on board Kanishka flight which crashed off the Irish coast in June 1985. It took a great effort to present the case with just 80 witnesses, spokesman Geoff Gaul said yesterday, adding "had we been put to the task of calling all of the witnesses to prove each and every element, so over a thousand witnesses, we would still be presenting that evidence." Gaul would not offer any comment on how the case had gone other than to say it is probably the most complex criminal trial ever undertaken in this country.
He characterized the Canadian police investigation as its greatest ever, stretching over 16 years and covering the globe.

Several witnesses have testified about conversations with Malik and Bagri in which the two discussed details of the Air India bombings and in some cases seemed to implicate themselves.
The case also involved visits to a huge warehouse where the Air India jet has been partly reconstructed from wreckage retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean.

Bureau Report