by Deborah Jones
VANCOUVER, Canada - Venomous demands for justice besieged Canada's government Thursday, after two Sikhs were cleared of killing 329 people in a 1985 Air India jet bombing.
Loved ones of victims, the press and foes of Prime Minister Paul Martin's government demanded to know why there were no murder convictions after a 20-year probe which cost 100 million dollars (82 million US).
Families of passengers who perished, in both Canada and India, decried what they said was a mockery of justice and demanded a government investigation.
Canada's newspapers Thursday reflected a wave of shock at the acquittals of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripadaman Singh at the British Columbia Supreme Court.
Toronto-based Globe and Mail devoted its front page to the headline "innocent" and the names of the 329 victims, 135 of them children, plus two baggage handlers killed in Tokyo in a related attack.
There were few critics of the judge, who found that the prosecution in the case, in Vancouver, the origin of two suitcase bombs, failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the two men were part of a radical Sikh conspiracy seeking to avenge an Indian government crackdown in the 1980s.
"But Canadians can and should know what happened, how the investigation was handled, why it took so long to make arrests and whether Canada's police and intelligence communities have learned from it," the Toronto Star said in a hard-hitting editorial.
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, said in the immediate aftermath of the verdict that she could "not see any benefit" to calling a public inquiry.
But relatives who lost loved ones on Wednesday lined up in a press conference in Vancouver to blast the Canadian police system and secret services and the government.
"The perpetrators of this crime are free men today, they have made a mockery of the Canadian justice system, said Eddie Maddon, whose father Sam died in the tragedy.
"The Canadian justice system has made a mockery of all of us," said John Chatlani, whose mother, brother and sister died.
Lata Pada, whose husband and two daughters died aboard the jumbo said the verdict "flies in the face of what we believe Canada to be, a fair society ... the government needs to be held accountable for this betrayal."
Relatives in victims in India also turned their fire on Canada.
"If the two accused who were narrowed down after a lot of investigation are not the culprits, then who is it," asked Bollywood actor Vijayendra Ghatge whose sister Sangeeta died in the mid-air tragedy.
"Initially after the verdict I was disappointed, but now we relatives of the victims feel that justice needs to be done and there should be further, deep investigation," Ghatge told AFP.
Canada's opposition leader, Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party on Wednesday said he thought the government should launch a public enquiry into the Air India case, should any prosecution appeal of Justice Ian Bruce Josephson's verdict not be successful.
But Josephson's questioning of key witness testimony was so withering, that the feasibility of an appeal was in question.
Malik and Bagri, orthodox Sikhs who immigrated to Canada from Punjab, were accused of conspiring to plant suitcase bombs on two aircraft.
Prosecutors claimed the two men worked with a Sikh group to build suitcase bombs on Vancouver Island, then planted the explosives on two flights from Vancouver that connected with Air India planes.
One bomb exploded in the hold of Air India Flight 182 over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. All 329 people aboard the jumbo jet died.
Just 54 minutes earlier, another bomb had exploded at Japan's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers transferring suitcases to Air India Flight 201.
03/17/2005 17:49 GMT