Vancouver: A key witness in the Air India trial was seeking revenge against prime suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik after she fell out with him, the court, hearing the case, was told.

During the cross-examination by defence counsel, an agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) yesterday (November 21) said that the woman approached the agency with so much detailed information that he had to schedule extra meetings with her to hear it all.

"She had a falling out with Malik. In some respects, she was anxious to get back at him," Nick Rowe, the agent told the B C Supreme Court in Vancouver.

The woman, who is under police protection, cannot be named because of a court order.

The witness, though initially scared for her personal safety, provided "a large amount of information" pertaining to the possible threats to security of Canada and to the activities of Malik, his associates and organisations linked to the Sikh parochial school where she worked, Rowe said about his initial meetings with her in 1997.

Rowe briefly considered recruiting her as an "informant", but in view of safety decided to turn her over to RCMP-security agency, Canadian daily, the 'Globe and Mail' reported.

However, the woman did not indicate she had specific knowledge of who perpetuated the bombings and did not attribute the disaster to anyone, Rowe said.

Neither did she say that Malik was directly responsible for the bombing, he added.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are charged with murder in the deaths of 329 people in an explosion aboard an Air India flight on June 23, 1985, and of two people in a bomb blast at a Japanese airport.

PTI