Vancouver: A judge hearing the Air India trial has rejected the Canadian government's request to treat one of its own key witness Inderjit Singh Reyat as hostile.

Following the decision by Judge Ian Bruce Josephson, prosecutors will not be able to challenge evasive testimony from Reyat, who has already pleaded guilty for his role in the June 23, 1985 Kanishka bombing that killed all 329 passengers on board.

The reasons for the ruling were not immediately available.

Reyat was called as a witness by the British Columbia court hearing the Air India trial with the hope that he could bolster the murder and conspiracy charges against Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and Kamloops sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri.

Prosecutor Leonard Doust had called Reyat's testimony last week a "pack of lies" and applied to cross examine him as a hostile witness. He had said that Bagri appeared to be protecting Bagri and Malik.

Cross-examining Reyat would have allowed Doust to pursue a more aggressive line of questioning and focussed on what they saw as inconsistencies between the testimony and previous statements, media reports said.

The defence lawyers, however, opposed the motion, arguing that there was no legal precedents for such an order and that the government appeared to be attempting to extend the investigation, Canadian daily 'Toronto Star' said.

PTI