Families of victims of the 1985 Air India Flight 182 bombing, also called the ” Kanishka bombing”, expressed shock and dismay after being told by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that investigators have exhausted the available leads and that the long-running probe is effectively being wound down.
According to a report by CBC News, the RCMP had sent letters to the victim’s family announcing the move; however, the investigation remains open, and any new or credible information will be pursued.
Police also said there are currently no other persons of interest or suspects under consideration.
CBC took accounts from people who attended a meeting with investigators in Toronto on September 12, where family members were told that there was no further information to pursue in the case.
For families who have waited more than four decades for answers, the development came as a painful surprise.
Sanjay Lazar, who lost his parents and sister in the bombing, told CBC News that families had not been prepared for what they would hear at the meeting held at a hotel near Toronto airport.
“They said that we don’t have any more leads. We cannot pursue, and we need to identify significant persons in this. And therefore we are going to start, well, winding down,” Lazar told CBC News on Monday.
“You can’t just abandon the whole investigation purely because you feel you’ve reached a dead end,” he added.
The bombing of Air India Flight 182 remains one of the darkest chapters in Canada’s history.
On June 23, 1985, the flight was travelling from Toronto to Mumbai, with planned stops in Montreal, London and New Delhi, when a bomb concealed inside a suitcase in the aircraft’s hold exploded. The plane broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board.
Most of those killed were Canadian citizens. The bombing is considered the worst mass murder in Canadian history. Investigations and a public inquiry subsequently exposed serious failures in Canada’s intelligence and security systems.
Yet, despite the scale of the crime, only one person has ever been convicted in connection with the bombing bomb-maker Inderjit Singh Reyat. He served a 30-year sentence and was released in 2016. Two other men were tried and acquitted in 2005. One of them, Ripudaman Singh Malik, was shot and killed in 2022. Another suspect was killed in India in 1992.
Families say the investigation being shelved is a painful blow.
Rob Alexander, whose father was killed in the explosion, said the September 12 meeting was long overdue because the RCMP had not spoken to the families for years. Alexander told CBC News that around 40 to 50 family members attended the meeting in person, while another 20 or so joined through Zoom.
“They told us that because they felt they had exhausted most of the strings of evidence that they had been following over the years, they were kind of parking the investigation and kind of going inactive,” Alexander said.
“And the family members were utterly shocked. We know it’s been a long time, and things get exhausted and people die off and we get that. But to shelve the whole thing and make it inactive is a big slap in the face to the memories of the people that we lost,” he added.
The RCMP had invited relatives to the meeting through a letter addressed to “The families of the victims of Air India Flight 182, 1985.”
The invitation said the meeting would provide an update on the “current status” of the investigation and outline its future steps.
“We recognise that this continues to be a deeply personal and difficult experience, and we are committed to keeping you informed and supported,” the invitation said.
But the message delivered at the meeting left some families deeply distressed.
Sudha Berry, whose 16-year-old brother Sharad was killed in the bombing, subsequently wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney, several ministers and RCMP officials, expressing what she described as her family’s “utter dismay”.
“The decision took most of the families of the passengers that perished on that flight completely by surprise. We have waited patiently for 41 years for the RCMP to deliver justice in the names of those we lost,” Berry wrote, as per CBC News.
“The decision is a betrayal of the families’ trust and a complete dereliction of the RCMP’s duty towards them,” the letter added.
The RCMP acknowledged the meeting after CBC News initially published its report, while stressing that the case has not formally been closed.
“Family members were provided with an update concerning an individual (widely referred to as Mr. X) who had come to the attention of investigators. Over time, while an individual was identified, no definitive link to the events under investigation could be established,” RCMP said in a statement as per CBC News.
“Today, while there are no other persons of interest or suspects under consideration, the investigation remains open. If new or credible information comes forward, it will be investigated.
The RCMP has always endeavoured to seek justice for the victims of Air India and that commitment stands,” it added.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree also said that any new information would be reviewed.
“We will continue honouring the memory of those who were killed and supporting efforts to ensure that this tragedy is never forgotten,” he said in a statement Monday evening.
Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations who conducted a preliminary inquiry into the Air India bombing in 2005, also expressed concern about the RCMP’s approach.
Rae told CBC News that he believed it was wrong for police to consider winding down the investigation and said he was “deeply troubled” by the approach.
“It’s not a smart approach or a smart move,” Rae said, adding that he believed it would not help Canada’s reputation in India.
“This is the most serious mass crime committed in Canadian history,” he added.
For the families, the issue is not simply whether the investigation has formally been closed. More than 40 years after Flight 182 disappeared over the Atlantic, they are confronting the possibility that the search for further answers may no longer be an active priority.
The RCMP maintains that the case remains open and that credible new information will be investigated, while families continue to seek answers about the bombing that changed their lives and remains one of the most devastating acts of mass violence in Canadian history.
