July 27, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minutes read • 6 comments Police are investigating the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik on July 14, 2022. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says charges have been laid over the July 14 murder of controversial Surrey businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik.

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Malik, who was acquitted of murder charges in the 1985 Air India bombing, was shot to death as he arrived at his business in an industrial complex at 8236 128 Street. Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, are charged with first-degree murder. Both are due to appear at Surrey District Court today. Both have faced violent crime charges long before Malik’s murder. Tanner Fox in 2019 Abbotsford Police Photo Courtesy of Abbotsford Police Lopez was charged in Kelowna last summer with nine criminal charges, including possession of a firearm with ammunition, pointing a weapon, violating a court order to possess a firearm and resisting arrest. The matter was sent from the provincial court to the Supreme Court last October. Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for the BC Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday that Lopez will next be in court on the gun charges in November with a Dec. 5 trial date in Kelowna.

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“He was ordered released on these charges on $5,000 cash bail with conditions on July 30, 2021,” McLaughlin said. “BCPS opposed his release.” Lopez was also convicted in September 2019 of assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon for an incident in Abbotsford a year earlier. He was sentenced to 18 months probation and a 10-year firearm ban. Fox was convicted last April of resisting or obstructing a peace officer and sentenced to four days in jail. He was convicted of assault causing bodily harm involving a knife in November 2019 in Abbotsford and sentenced to 119 days in jail, as well as a 10-year firearms ban. And last fall, he was charged with aggravated assault related to the New Westminster incident. He was out on $500 bail at the time of Malik’s murder.

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Both young men have connections to Abbotsford. More details will be announced this afternoon. After the murder, IHIT released an eerie video of a white Honda CRV driving through the parking lot of the complex where Papillon is based about 80 minutes before the shooting. It looked like there was more than one person inside. Investigators said the suspects were inside waiting for Malik, 75. The Honda was found burning six blocks away shortly after the targeted hit. Malik was once an Air India bombing suspect linked to the Sikh separatist movement. He was acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges in March 2005. The divisive figure was also the founder of the Khalsa Credit Union and the Satnam Educational Society, which runs several independent schools and receives funding from the BC government.

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Malik used the school’s letterhead to write to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, offering his support and thanking Modi for trying to address outstanding issues related to the treatment of Sikhs. Some criticized Malik for the letter, in which he also expressed his support for a united India in contrast to his earlier separatist position. Police said after the killing that no motive had been determined and that IHIT has “a number of investigative avenues available to us. “Postmedia has spoken to more than a dozen people who know Malik or worked on the investigation into the June 23, 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people. No one believed Malik’s murder, which everyone described as shocking, had anything to do with the terror plot 37 years ago. MORE TO COME…

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