Vancouver, Nov 06: The key witness in the Air India trail said that she was threatened by associates of main accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and lives in constant fear of being killed. She received death threats at the shopping mall and public transit before entering a Canada's witness protection programme in 1998, she said in an emotional address to the court yesterday. The woman, who shared a relationship with the Vancouver-based businessman Malik, is the star prosecution witness in bombing of the Air India Flight 182 which went down off Irish coast on June 23, 1985 killing all 329 people on board.

She received phone calls, her sons bedroom window was pelted with eggs in mid nights. At the request of police the family moved five times to temporary quarters, living out of suitcases, before being relocated permanently, she said. Even then she was recognised in her new neighbourhood and had to move again.
The witness protection programme has not made her feel secure, she said. "The protection programme is not easy". "you lose everything. You have no background. You have no records. You lose touch with your friends and family. You are constantly watching you back," the globe and mail quoted her as saying to the court.
Bureau Report