Kanishka case:
A provincial government in Canada has vowed to make all efforts to recover USD 5.2 million in legal fees owed by Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted in the 1985 Kanishka bombing case, after the apex court granted it access to documents seized from him to prove that he was in the position to pay the amount.
"BC (British Columbia) will pursue all our available means to collect the money we believe is owed to taxpayers," the province's Attorney General Barry Penner said.
His statement followed the Thursday order of the Supreme Court, which granted the BC government access to evidence that was seized in a bid to prove that Malik could afford to pay his own USD 5.2-million legal bill.
The province sought the evidence along with a search warrant to show that he was trying to defraud the Crown and get out of paying his defence costs, claiming he was broke.
Malik and three of his family members had appealed against the decision allowing the search of his home, business and his son's law office, but by then, government lawyers had already conducted the search.
Malik, who was in 2005 found not guilty in the bombing of Air India's Kanishka flight in which 331 people were killed, argued the search order should not have been granted because it relied on information from an earlier court proceeding.
But in its unanimous ruling on Thursday, Canada's top court disagreed, saying that a judgment in a prior civil or criminal case is admissible.
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