Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person convicted for the 1985 Air India bombing, completed his manslaughter sentence but was not released as he is awaiting a fresh trial on perjury charge.
Reyat, 55, was escorted from Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford in Canada to a Lower Mainland jail on Saturday to await his perjury trial, which is now scheduled in British Columbia Supreme Court for March 7. But Reyat is hoping to be released on bail.
Roger Cutler, of the attorney general's ministry, confirmed that Reyat has applied for bail, and March 4 has been fixed to hear that application.
"He was kept in a federal institution while completing his manslaughter sentence, which came to end. And then he still has to deal with the perjury matter and he is in custody while awaiting that. The (arrest) warrant would have been issued way back then," Cutler said.
Families of the Air India victims were contacted in January and told Reyat had agreed to plead guilty to perjury for lying at the trial of two others accused in the terrorism plot.
But Reyat appears to be intent on going to trial on the allegations he lied repeatedly in September 2003 when he was a Crown witness against Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik. Both men were later acquitted.
Lisa Lapointe, of BC Corrections, also confirmed the Reyat transfer, but said she couldn't release information about which pre-trial jail - Surrey or North Fraser - is now the temporary home of the bomb maker.
"We are not allowed to release that," Lapointe was quoted as saying by Vancouver Sun. "If his warrant expired with the federal government on Sunday and then there is a warrant of remand, then custody would go to provincial corrections on that date," she added.
Reyat pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2003 for aiding in the Air India bombing. He had also been convicted in 1991 for building a second bomb that exploded the same day at Tokyo's Narita Airport, killing two baggage handlers.
Both bombs were checked in at Vancouver International Airport and tagged for Air India flights heading in opposite directions around the globe.
In the perjury indictment against Reyat, issued in February 2006, the Crown alleged Reyat lied 27 times over five days of Air India trial testimony.
His alleged lies relate to his knowledge of the bombing plot, his relationship with plot mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar and his claim he didn't know the identity of 'Mr X', the mystery terrorist who stayed with Reyat for several days in early June 1985 and to whom Reyat claimed he gave all the bomb components used to kill 331 people.
The indictment suggests Reyat worked closely with Mr. X on the bombs and the pair discussed the motive for the attack - the treatment of Sikhs in India.
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