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VANCOUVER - The jury sworn in the Air India perjury case was discharged before the trial began on Monday after allegations one juror had made a racist comment.
Four years after he was charged with lying during the Air India terrorism trial, Inderjit Singh Reyat was supposed to go to trial for perjury in Vancouver on Monday.
But Justice Mark McEwan postponed the trial and dismissed the jury, saying he got a letter from one juror over the weekend about the alleged comment, which was made in the company of other jurors.
He said he didn't think the trial could continue with the same jury because the allegations could have affected more than the person who complained and the one who made the comment.
While serving his sentence for manslaughter in the airline bombing, Reyat was charged in February 2006 with lying 27 times when he was called as a Crown witness in the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.
Reyat had pleaded guilty in February 2003 of playing a minor role in the June 1985 attack on Air India that left 329 dead. He was then called to testify in September 2003.
In March 2005, both Mr. Malik and Mr. Bagri were acquitted on all counts in the Air India case.
Eleven months later, the perjury charge was laid.
Reyat finished his five-year manslaughter sentence and got bail in the perjury case in July 2008.
A 12-person jury was selected last Wednesday and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan cautioned it against doing its own research into details of the long-running Air India case.
The original indictment said Reyat lied when he said he did not know suspected plot mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar was a leader of the terrorist Babbar Khalsa, that he did not know the purpose of Babbar Khalsa and that he had no information about the plight of Sikhs in Punjab at the time of the bombing.
The indictment also said Reyat lied when he said Parmar asked him "to make one explosive device" and that Parmar did not provide detailed information about the use of that device or ask him about the progress of Reyat's bomb-making.
Reyat also allegedly lied when he claimed that any dynamite he got after Parmar asked him to make a bomb was "only to blow up stumps."
The last series of alleged lies laid out in the indictment relates to Reyat's claim on the stand that he did not know the identity of "Mr. X," the Toronto man who stayed with him and to whom he claimed he gave all the bomb components.
The indictment suggests Reyat worked closely with Mr. X on the bombs, that the pair discussed the motive behind the attack - the treatment of Sikhs in India - and that Reyat introduced Mr. X by name to a friend he saw on a BC Ferry.
Another alleged lie Reyat told was that he said to Parmar "that he did not want to help to build an explosive device if people would get hurt and they assured him that it would not be used to hurt people," the indictment said.
If convicted, Reyat could face a maximum sentence of 14 years.
A new jury will be selected next Monday and perjury trial will begin on March 22.
Vancouver Sun
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥