Gerry Boudreault testified behind a white curtain as he described a series of 1984 meetings with militants who wanted guns and explosives and were willing to pay him $180,000 to get a bomb on an Air India flight.
TORONTO: A career criminal testifying at the Air India inquiry said he was offered a suitcase full of cash by Sikh militants to blow up the plane but he turned down the offer and instead warned police about the plot months before the bombing in 1985.
Gerry Boudreault testified behind a white curtain as he described a series of 1984 meetings with militants who wanted guns and explosives and were willing to pay him $180,000 to get a bomb on an Air India flight.
Boudreault, whose identity was not released at the inquiry, has previously testified publicly in an unrelated 1994 hearing that he told police in advance about the Air India plot. Air India Flight 182 exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 people.
Despite a criminal record spanning 40 years, Boudreault said he only met with the plotters because he wanted more information to pass on to police.
"I wanted to prevent an airplane from being blown out of the sky".
"They wanted somebody who had access to the plane in Montreal so they could put a bomb on it," he was quoted as saying by Canadian daily 'Vancouver Sun'.
He said they showed him a briefcase full of cash, so he knew they were serious.
He said he kept police apprised of developments after each meeting with the militants. One Vancouver officer laughed at him and said 'that will never happen,' Boudreault testified.
Boudreault said police were suspicious of his story because of his criminal record, "I never claimed to be a white angel."
Boudreault said he first met Harmail Singh Grewal in 1977 and began a lengthy friendship with the British Columbia man.
He said it was Grewal who introduced him to the militants who wanted his help in carrying out acts of terrorism, including the bombing and an assassination attempt on then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Those people were described as Mr Q, Mr W and Mr Z at the inquiry, but they were all associates of suspected mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar.
Boudreault said he once went with Grewal to Parmars Burnaby, BC, home in October or November 1984, 'but I stayed in the car'.
Mr W, who once lived in Calgary, made calls from Boudreaults house around the same time to Inderjit Singh Reyat in Duncan, BC, Boudreault testified.
Reyat has admitted he supplied components for Air India plot and that Parmar, who was killed in India in 1992, asked him to build the bombs.
Boudreault said he only learned of the long-distance calls to Reyat after police came to him with phone records in the spring of 1986.
Boudreault said he did not know why he was not asked to testify at the Air India trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri that ended in acquittals.
But he said he is ready to give evidence if others are charged.
Former Vancouver police officer Rick Crook, who is now with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said Grewal described a plan to bomb two planes and said a meeting had taken place in a Lower Mainland restaurant in September or
October 1984.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}