– Will argue innocence from India jail cell –

(OSOYOOS TIMES — March 28, 2007) –

By Lawrence McMahenrnOsoyoos Times

An Osoyoos orchardist who on March 16 lost his B.C. court appeal against extradition to India for a 32-year-old murder conviction has dropped his plan to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and will now try to clear his name after he returns to an Indian jail to resume serving a life sentence.
Malkiat Singh Bhandol, whose home and business, SP Farm & Fruit Market, are at 6218 Highway 97 in Osoyoos, this month lost his bid to avoid extradition when the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected his argument that a June 2005 extradition order made by the Minister of Justice should be overturned.
Now his Canadian lawyer says Bhandol will return to India as quickly as possible and will try to have new evidence introduced there that will exonerate him.
In August 1975 Bhandol was convicted in Ludhiana, Punjab, India for being one of five men who in March 1974 carried out a kidnapping, attempted murder, and revenge murder and dismemberment of a man.
In April 1978 Bhandol was granted bail pending the outcome of his appeal of the murder conviction. When the appeal was dismissed by the High Court of Punjab in September 1978, Bhandol fled to Singapore.
In early 1980 he came to Canada, at Winnipeg, and married a Canadian woman. A few months later he applied for immigration and permanent resident status. In mid-1981 he was charged with overstaying his visitor's visa. He was photographed and fingerprinted by the RCMP, fined $100 and was deported to India, although it's not clear if he returned to India or not.
In 1982 Bhandol returned to Canada and received landed immigrant status. Shortly after that he was divorced and sponsored his fiancée from India to immigrate to Canada.
By the mid-1980s, authorities realized that the fingerprints taken from Bhandol in 1981 matched those of the man who had fled India years earlier to avoid imprisonment in the murder case.
In 1991 Bhandol, who until then had been known as Malkiat Singh, changed his name to Malkiat Singh Bhandol.
India had asked for Bhandol's extradition. In 2002 the Federal Court of Canada held an unusual inquiry in India to determine that it should act on Bhandol's case. An arrest warrant was issued under the Canadian Extradition Act.
On January 14, 2004 an RCMP roadside check on Highway 97 near Osoyoos apprehended Bhandol by chance. By that time, Bhandol and his family had been living in Osoyoos for many years, operating their orchard and fruit stand, and by all accounts were upstanding citizens.
Bhandol's lawyer, Russ Chamberlain, of Richmond, says that after a few weeks of incarceration following his 2004 arrest, Bhandol was released on bail of nearly $2 million, put up by about 13 people.
A trial was conducted in early 2004 to determine whether extradition would apply to Bhandol, and in June 2004, despite a constitutional challenge from Bhandol, the judge determined that it did. In June 2005 Canada's Minister of Justice ordered Bhandol's extradition to India, in spite of a number of arguments against it from Bhandol. Bhandol appealed both the judge's order and the minister's extradition decision to the B.C. Court of Appeal, which rendered its decision earlier this month.
The appeal court rejected Bhandol's arguments that it would be unjust and oppressive to extradite him. He had argued that position because he said he was 17 at the time of the offence, had already served four years of his sentence when he fled, that he had been a model citizen in Canada with a family and support from the community, and that new evidence presented in India shows he is innocent of the original crime.
The Court of Appeal rejected these arguments and upheld the extradition order.
It said that it is satisfied that there are channels in the Indian justice system to allow for hearing the new evidence in favour of Bhandol's innocence, and that is the place for that evidence, not Canada.
Bhandol's lawyer, Russ Chamberlain, says shortly after the appeal court's decision on March 16, he filed leave to appeal Bhandol's case to the Supreme Court of Canada. Bhandol went into custody on the 16th and Chamberlain also applied for bail for Bhandol, which was denied by the Court of Appeal on March 20.
Chamberlain says at that point he withdrew the request for the Supreme Court appeal and Bhandol determined he will fight for his innocence and freedom in India.
He will be going back to India as soon as possible, Chamberlain said last Friday. We hope to get him transferred in as little as a week.rnChamberlain says Bhandol has a lawyer in India, Mr. Sood, ready to fight for him by introducing new evidence. In his recent Canadian court cases, Bhandol introduced affidavits from eyewitnesses to the original murder saying he did not take part.
(The Bhandols) are an absolutely marvellous family and it's tragic what has happened to them, Chamberlain says.
The Bhandols' home, fruit stand, 17-acre mixed fruit orchard and two-acre pond are now listed for sale for $2.09 million.