‘Could have been saved’

Dr. Bal Gupta was expecting some rather dry testimony yesterday as he settled down to watch the Air India inquiry over the Internet.

Instead, Ontario Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman rocked the inquiry with his revelation that the government knew Sikh extremists were planning to attack an Air India flight just days before a bomb killed 329 people in 1985.

“I thought it was going to be more on methods and the rules and regulations when he was there (as head of intelligence and security at foreign affairs),” Gupta said.

“But in the last few minutes, I was really surprised and shocked.

“What we always suspected is not only true, actually it was even worse.”

Gupta lost his wife in the bombing, the worst terrorist act in Canadian history.

“I was saddened by the fact that this confirms this could have been prevented and our loved ones could have been saved,” Gupta said.

“We did suspect there was more knowledge of the impending disaster than they have ever accepted. This was more specific than anything we have heard so far.”

He said he expects similar testimony at the inquiry about exactly how much federal authorities knew of the plot, although he had no inkling Bartleman’s testimony would be so dramatic.

“This was out of the blue and coming from a person of the station of Mr. Bartleman, you can’t really discount it,” Gupta said.

“The system, if I can use that word, knew more than they have led us to believe so far.”

Gupta, an engineer from Etobicoke, has been at the forefront of the campaigns by the victims’ families to get compensation and answers.

The criminal investigation — marred by infighting between Mounties and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service — never succeeded in convicting anyone of murder.

A Duncan, B.C., man, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was ultimately convicted of manslaughter for helping to build the bomb that blew up Air India Flight 182 over the Irish Sea — and another that killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita airpirt the same day.

But Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagrai were acquitted of murder in a lengthy trial.

Talwinder Singh Parmar, believed to be the mastermind of the plot, was killed by Indian police in 1992.

“You have to keep in mind that even after 22 years, the pain and the suffering is ongoing,” Gupta said.