Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content

Killing of man acquitted in Air India bombing a painful reminder for families of victims, says Chandrima Chakraborty

The 1985 bombing of an Air India flight from Toronto to Bombay killed 329 people, including 280 Canadians. It remains Canada's worst mass murder.

July 15, 2022

A headshot of Chandrima Chakraborty
Chandrima Chakraborty is an associate professor in the Department of English & Cultural Studies and has conducted interviews with families and friends of those who died in the Air India bombings (Photo by JD Howell/McMaster University).

Expert Featured In This Story

Chandrima Chakraborty
Chandrima Chakraborty

Professor

See Profile

The shooting death of Ripudaman Singh Malik, the B.C. businessman and Sikh separatist who was acquitted of the 1985 Air India bombings, is no consolation to the families of the victims of the attack still looking for answers decades later, says Chandrima Chakraborty.

Chakraborty, an associate professor in the Department of English & Cultural Studies, has focused much of her research on the tragedy, which remains Canada’s worst mass murder.

The bombing of an Air India flight from Toronto to Bombay on June 23rd, 1985 killed 329 people, including 280 Canadians. Two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita Airport were also killed that day in a separate bomb blast.

After a 15-year investigation, Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were charged with murder and conspiracy in connection to the attack. They were acquitted in 2005.

Chakraborty, who has conducted interviews with families and friends of those who died on Air India Flight 182, spoke to CBC News Network about this latest chapter in the decades-long case. Watch below.

For a transcript of the video, click here.

A collage of seven professors' headshots.

Royal Society of Canada recognizes seven McMaster researchers

Five have been elected to the RSC as Fellows, a distinction awarded to Canadians who have made remarkable contributions to the arts, the humanities, the sciences or Canadian public life. Two have been named to the RSC’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.
A person in a protective gear welds something while standing inside a massive metal pipe.

Is the world willing to support America’s nuclear ambitions? Q& A with expert Goran Calic  

The U.S. will have to rely on international allies and partners to overcome a manufacturing bottleneck and meet its ambitious nuclear power goals, the DeGroote professor explains.
The red surface of a surface tanker set against the ocean on a sunny day.

What’s at stake as Houthi rebels threaten new chokehold in the global flow of oil

Supply chain expert Behrouz Bakhtiari explains the global implications of a potential blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic shipping route in the Red Sea.