CHANDIGARH: One of the two persons responsible for the killing of 75-year-old pro-Khalistani extremist Ripudaman Singh Malik four years ago, has also been sentenced for the fatal shooting of another person in Canada.
In a statement on Thursday, Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) said Tanner Fox, now 25, was sentenced in January last year to life without parole, a term of 20 years, for the murder of Malik, a controversial figure once accused of involvement of the bombing of Air India flight 182, the Kanishka, in June 1985.
In a statement on Thursday, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) said Fox was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 years in prison with no credit for time served in relation to the fatal shooting of a 41-year-old Chad Colivas of Abbotsford, British Columbia, on March 21, 2022.
The subsequent IHIT investigation had later stated that Colivas was shot after confronting Fox, who had broken into his home. Colivas was unarmed and the case was not linked to any gang activity.
Fox and another accused Laetitia Acera, 30, were arrested in May 2023. Fox was charged with second degree murder, while Acera faced manslaughter. She was sentenced to four years in prison and two years probation, with credit for time already spent in custody after pleading guilty. She also received a 10 year firearms ban.
Whereas, Fox is sentenced to 15 years in prison along with a lifetime firearms ban. In January last year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering Malik, a pro-Khalistani extremist and controversial figure due to being named as an accused in the Kanishka bombing on June 23, 1985, which led to the death of 329 persons.
That attack by pro-Khalistani extremist remains the worst incident of terrorism in Canadian history. However, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence, along with another accused Ajaib Singh Bagri. Only the bombmaker Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted but was released in 2016 after completing nearly two-third of his sentence.
In early 2022, Malik issued a public letter disavowing the Khalistan movement and praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was also believed to have an ongoing dispute with pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in the same town on June 18, 2023. Removed from a blacklist, Malik had visited India that year.
Malik was killed on July 14, 2022, as he sat in his vehicle in the parking lot of his business in Surrey in British Columbia.
