Canadian police charge two men in murder of Sikh businessman

Canadian police said on Wednesday they have arrested two men and charged them with the murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh businessman shot dead in British Columbia earlier in July.

Malik, who was acquitted in 2005 in connection with the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, was found by police with gunshot wounds and died at the spot in Surrey, British Columbia, on July 14.

Police said at the time that they had not established a motive for Malik's killing or found evidence to suggest whether the killing was connected to the airline attack.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's homicide investigation team said it has now obtained charges of first-degree murder against 21-year-old Tanner Fox and 23-year-old Jose Lopez for Malik's murder.

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Information about the charges were included in the notice of a news conference scheduled for 3pm local time (2200 GMT). Police said they did not have other details to share ahead of the news conference.

The two men's lawyers could not immediately be found for comment.

Malik, along with Ajaib Singh Bagri, a worker in British Columbia, was acquitted of charges related to the attack on Air India Flight 182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean in 1985 in one of history's deadliest bombings of a commercial airliner.