NEW DELHI: A three-member team of Canadian police officials has arrived in India to interrogate Manjit Singh alias Lal Singh, a key suspect in the bombing of Air India jetliner Kanishka in 1985 which resulted in the death of all the 329 people on board,
Official sources recently said the Canadian interrogators will begin soon questioning Lal Singh who is in police custody in Bombay.
Said to be a top activist of the Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF) and a member of the second Panthic Committee (Daljit Singh Bittoo group), Lal Singh was arrested last month in Bombay. Police foiled his attempt to commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill and overpowered him, He later tried to bite off his tongue to avoid interrogation and had to be hospitalized for several days.
The Canadian team of interrogators which arrived here on August 26, is led by a senior official equivalent to the rank of an inspector general of police,
The Canadian team will also interrogate Lal Singh about the activities of the KLF on Canadian soil. Several key activists of the KLF-Satinder Singh, Gurmej Singh and Umrao Singh are believed to be in Canada at present, and the interrogation may give clues to their whereabouts.
The team has been extensively briefed by Indian security agencies since their arrival here.
Security forces have described Lal Singh as a “very important catch” and are confident of working out a host of militant cases in India and abroad. He is also believed to be behind the abduction of Romanian diplomat Liviu Radu in the Capital last year and the attempted kidnapping of the grand daughter of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1992
