Ottawa: A man who was acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people was shot dead outside of Vancouver, Canada New York Post reported.

Ripudaman Singh Malik was killed while he was sitting in his car outside a business center in Surrey.

Malik, 75, and Ajaib Singh Bagri were exonerated of mass murder and conspiracy charges in 2005 after being blamed for planting a bomb on the plane which exploded near Ireland that killed 280 Canadians and a bombing at a Tokyo airport that killed two baggage handlers, the paper said.

They were arrested in 2000 for the massacre and accused of targeting India’s national airline in retaliation for the government’s deadly raid on a sacred Golden Temple in 1984. Malik and Bagri were set free after key prosecution witnesses were deemed unreliable.

It was reportedly unclear if Malik’s “targeted” murder was related the atrocities he had been tied to.

A suspect’s car was found nearby in flames shortly after the 9:30 a.m. shooting.

UNI ACL