Vancouver: The wife of one of the accused in the Air India bombings has said she will not pay his legal bills from a home once valued at USD two million that is in her name.

Raminder Kaur Malik, 52, told the Supreme Court of British Columbia it has been her position since her husband Ripudaman Singh Malik's arrest in October 2000 that she should protect her interests and those of her two teenage children.

Ripudaman, a millionaire businessman, who has already received an undisclosed amount from the Attorney General's Ministry to fund his defence team, is seeking more financial aid.

Raminder said she's worked six days a week since she and her husband came to Canada in 1974. The couple then established what would become a multimillion-Dollar joint real estate and business empire whose net worth dwindled to $ 11.6 million by December 2002, she told the court on August 11.

"I believe it is my right to protect what I've got for my old age and my children who are underage still," Raminder was quoted as saying in the 'Vancouver Sun' daily.

"I'm not charged with anything. I love my husband still but that doesn't mean I have to pay for all his defence."

Ripudaman, along with his co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri, face multiple counts including first-degree murder, conspiracy and other charges in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 in which all 329 crew and passengers were killed.

The two are also charged in the deaths of two baggage handlers who were transporting a suitcase that exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport before it was to be transferred to another Air India flight the same day.

PTI