Vancouver: The 1985 Kanishka Bombing case has run into a new controversy after several defence lawyers for the accused quit saying that an accused's family had committed fraud by over-billing them for work not done through public funds.

Gil McKinnon, lawyer for Inderjit Singh Reyat, accused in the conspiracy that blew up the Air India jet mid-air killing all the 329 people on board near London, said on July 5 his children Didar and Prit were paid from public funds for hours that they didn't put in.

McKinnon, who along with seven other lawyers had quit the defence team in April 2002, said their team had then discussed the employment of the children, who were utilised for clerical and computer work.

The discussion prompted a review of the accounts produced by the two children for the month of March, McKinnon said adding it showed that the figures were fraudulent.

"Didar Reyat even readily admitted that the account for February and March for him and his sister were fraudulent, that they showed billings double with respect to the hours," he stated.

The Attorney General of British Columbia, where the case comes up for trial in April 2003, Geoff Plant said he had stopped payments for Reyat's defence pending investigations.

"In order to protect the public purse I think until we get some more answers it's quite reasonable for us to withhold payment on some of these accounts," Plant said.

The Federal and Provincial governments in Canada are expected to pay in millions in legal funding for defence of Reyat and his co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri for the June 23,1985 bombing of Kanishka near London.

PTI