Second Hit Man in Ripudaman Singh Malik Murder Begins Sentencing Hearing
The oldest daughter-in-law of Ripudaman Singh Malik spoke in court to one of the two hitmen who killed Malik in Surrey, B.C., in 2022.
During her victim impact statement in British Columbia Supreme Court in New Westminster, Sundeep Kaur Dhaliwal addressed Jose Lopez, stating, “you let someone hire you to take away my children’s grandfather.”
Crown lawyer Matthew Stacey described Malik’s death as a “public cold-blooded execution,” with multiple shots fired in a public area, endangering bystanders in the community.
Stacey highlighted the fact that Malik was unarmed and “defenseless” at the time of his death, as well as the extensive planning by the two hitmen to carry out the murder, as aggravating factors in the case.
The other individual involved, Tanner Fox, received a life sentence without parole for 20 years during his sentencing hearing in January.
While both men pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, the identity of the person who ordered the hit has not been publicly disclosed.
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Fox and Lopez, who were in their early 20s at the time of the murder, had initially been charged with first-degree murder.
The two men shot Malik seven times, including six shots to the head and neck. Images presented in court show Malik’s red Tesla with shattered windows.
In 2005, Malik and his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in B.C. Supreme Court of charges related to the Air India bombings that killed 331 people in 1985, Canada’s worst terrorist attack.
Jaspreet Singh Malik, Malik’s son, has expressed that his father’s reputation has been unfairly tarnished since the bombings.
One bomb detonated over the ocean near Ireland, killing all 329 passengers on board, while the second bomb exploded at Narita airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers.
A 2005 Canadian government report attributed the bombings to Sikh Khalistani separatists in Canada, including bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat, who was convicted of manslaughter.
