Thursday, March 17 2005 21:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ferozepur: While the Canadian court's decision to acquit the two main accused in the Kanishka bombing case has left the families of those killed in the crash stunned, a relative of one of the undertrials Ripudaman Singh Malik has welcomed the judgement.

At his ancestral house in Ferozepur, his aged aunt Surinder Kaur while expressing contentment over the court's decision said she knew from the very beginning that "Ripudaman cannot be a party to such a ghastly act."

The only member of the Malik family living in the cantonment here, she remembers Ripudaman as a "kind-hearted soul" and could never imagine him triggering a mid-air blast.

Ridiculing the charges made out against him by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), she asked, "How Ripudaman could think of bombing an airbus that was piloted by a Sikh (Capt S S Bhinder)?"

A British Colombia Supreme Court judge yesterday found both millionaire businessman Malik and Kamloops mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty in the AI bombing which killed all 329 people on board off the Irish Coast in 1985.

Ripudaman along with Bagri was arrested after a 15 year-long investigation by RCMP on October 27, 2000 on charges of having conspired to bomb two Air India planes as a revenge for Operation Bluestar.

The RCMP had also charged Malik for having links with Babbar Khalsa International, a terrorist outfit.

Although Malik's aunt admitted that Ripudaman was "extremely upset" following Operation Blue star, she said she could never imagine that her nephew could conspire to kill innocent passengers and said the truth was before everyone's eye after the judgement.