Two men from Canada have pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik, confirming the gangland nature of the crime. Malik, who was acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, was shot dead on July 14, 2022, by 23-year-old Tanner Fox and 25-year-old Jose Lopez, both known criminals.
The case took a dramatic turn in British Columbia Supreme Court, where Fox and Lopez exchanged accusations during their guilty pleas, submitted just before their scheduled trial for first-degree murder.
Malik, a rival of slain terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, had been involved in a legal dispute with Nijjar over the printing of the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, in violation of a religious edict. Malik had publicly called for reconciliation with the Indian government, which reportedly angered Nijjar and his associates.
Malik was killed outside his family business, and law enforcement found two suspicious vehicles linked to the murder, including one that had been burned. The tactics used in Malik’s murder mirrored other recent gang-related killings in the region.
Just under a year later, Nijjar, initially a suspect in Malik’s murder, was himself shot and killed on June 18, 2023, in Surrey, British Columbia.
