Vancouver: One of the lawyers arguing the case of Ajaib Singh Bagri, co-accused in the Kanishka bombing of June 1985 has claimed that the prosecution lacked hard and trustworthy evidence proving Bagri's guilt, media reports have said.

In his closing argument in British Columbia Supreme Court, lawyer Richard Peck alleged a key witness against Bagri was "unscrupulous and received an unprecedented payment -nearly $ 500,000 - to testify", a report in the Canadian News network CNews said yesterday (Oct 25, 2004).

The informant, whose name is protected, said Bagri confessed he plotted the Kanishka bombing. Bagri denies that any such conversation took place.

Claiming the witness was driven by "unadulterated self-interest," Peck also said that the "fiery" speech given by Bagri in Madison Square garden in New York after the Indian Army's action in the Golden temple in 1984 cannot amount to proof of an offence.

"With respect to motive and the Madison Square Garden speech it's trite to say that motive standing alone can never amount to proof of an offence," Peck said.

Defence lawyer Michael Tammen argued that the speech was a "political speech". "By its very nature then it's an exercise in rhetorical excess", he said.

Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are accused of killing 331 people in two separate bombings - Flight 182 (Kanishka), and at Narita Airport - on June 23, 1985.

Peck, who described the case as the "single largest act of pure aviation terrorism in western history", said the prosecution's case included association between Bagri and Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind of the bombings, killed in a shootout with Indian security forces in 1992.

Admitting that Bagri was an associate of Parmar, Peck however denied that he knew about the plot.

"It is undoubted that Bagri was an associate of Talwinder Singh Parmar...but association does not equate with knowledge or participation," Peck said.

Peck also claimed that the statements of the witness was the "product of great uncertainty", adding they did not "meet the requisite standard for ultimate reliability."

The Air-India trial which began in February 2003, has heard more than 100 witnesses. The Judge, Justice Ian Josephson, who is hearing the case without a jury is expected to announce the verdict after several months.

Arguments for other co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik, were wrapped up on Friday (Oct 22, 2004) with defence lawyers pointing to discrepancies in statements made by a teacher - the star witness - at a religious school run by Malik. Malik had sacked her in October 1997.

The woman, who cannot be identified, had testified that she and Malik had been in love and that he had confided information about the bombings to her.

In their arguments Malik's lawyers had claimed that the woman was motivated by revenge and police rewards to talk to law enforcement officials.