Vancouver: A key witness in the Air India trial has testified that one of the chief accused had confessed to the bombing of the Kanishka flight and had the blessing of his Sikh spiritual advisor in carrying out the plot.

The woman, who cannot be identified as she is in protective custody, also said that Ripudaman Singh Malik had confessed to her that Canadian Sikhs had sent money to Sikhs in London, plotting the assassination of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

She testified that the accused told her that Bhai Jeewan Singh blessed the bombing plan of the Air India flight 182, which later crashed off the Irish Coast on June 23, 1985 killing all 331 people on board, media reports said.

The blessing came when Malik and others met with the holy man in Seattle, she told the court.

"We had Air India crash," Malik had told her.

"If one child dies for Sikhism, so what? We had the Air India crashed. Nobody, I mean nobody can do anything. It is all for Sikhism," Malik had confessed to the woman, CBC News reported.

"He was very calm and very serious," she told the court.

She said when she heard Malik say this, she "just broke down. I cried."

On being asked by Crown prosecutor Joe Bellows whether Malik had told her about the assassination plot against Rajiv Gandhi, the key witness replied Malik had confessed that when Sikhs in London were planning an attempt on Gandhi's life, the Satnam Trust, a local Sikh organisation in which Malik was involved, had "donated money to the Sikh extremist group Babbar Khalsa in England."

The woman said Malik also told her that the Trust and another local agency collected money to donate to the families of the Sikh bodyguards who were eventually hanged for Indira Gandhi's assassination.

She testified that Malik had also told her about the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He had said that on the same day the assassins of Indira Gandhi were executed, they sent a message telling Inderjit Singh Reyat, another key accused in the Air India case, to "keep up the good work", CBC News said.

Many of the conversations, the witness said were recorded in her red journal. She admitted to having destroyed many of the pages to protect Malik.

In a voice wavering with emotion she said she "did it so that I wouldn't be sitting here. I did'nt want people to look at him in a bad way," she told the court.

PTI