The head of the Air India inquiry will investigate reports that the mastermind behind the deadly 1985 terrorist bombing confessed to Indian police.
Former Supreme Court justice John Major said Monday that he isn't yet drawing conclusions about allegations that Vancouver Sikh militant Talwinder Singh Parmar confessed his role in the attack.
But he said he intends to pursue the matter when hearings resume in the fall.
"It falls under the terms of reference (of the inquiry) so we don't really have an option," Major told The Canadian Press.
"We have to find out what it's about, to the extent we can, and either decide that it's something that's relevant and important, or something that is not credible. There's no way of knowing until you hear and see what's going on."
An Indian investigative magazine reported on the weekend that Parmar confessed during an interrogation after his 1992 capture. It also said written statements and audio tapes of the sessions still exist, 22 years after the tragedy.
The magazine, Tehelka, reports that Parmar confessed to Punjab police during five days of interrogation in October 1992, before being killed by police
The officer who arrested Parmar, Harmail Singh Chandi, was directed to destroy the tape-recorded confession but he kept it secretly, according to the article.
In his alleged confession, Parmar shifts blame from himself, telling police he was acting on behalf of Lakhbir Singh Brar, a prominent member of India's Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s.
Under the headline "Operation Silence," the article reports that the arresting officer flew to Canada last month to give evidence to the Air India inquiry.
A spokesman for families of the victims, however, said they knew nothing about a confession.
Air India inquiry spokesman Michael Tansey declined to comment on the report of a meeting with the commission and the confession.
"We're aware of this article, and we will explore this and any other allegations when the hearings resume in the fall," Tansey told the newspaper.
Parmar is said to have told police that Vancouver Island resident Inderjit Singh Reyat prepared the suitcases with bombs for two flights, while Brar arranged the booking of the plane tickets, The Globe reports.
Brar has not been previously been linked to the Air India disaster, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in aviation history.
Reyat was convicted in 2005 of providing explosive materials and sent to prison. He is the only person convicted in the bombings.
Air India flight 182, on its way from Canada to India, was brought down by bombs over Ireland on June 23, 1985. All 329 people on board were killed.
Canadian authorities say the attacks were the work of a Vancouver-based circle of Sikh militants fighting with the Indian government over the creation a separate country called Khalistan.
Parmar was arrested in connection with the bombings and released without being charged. He left Canada after Reyat was arrested in 1988 and was killed in India in 1992.
Indian police maintain he was shot during an encounter with a group of militants, but separatist supporters say he was tortured by police and died from his injuries.
Tehelka reported that Parmar was caught in Jammu province in September 1992 and interrogated from October 9 to 14. Chandi, the arresting officer, told the magazine that Parmar was killed in police custody on the order of senior officers.
Brar, who Parmar says instructed him to devise the bomb plot, came to Canada in April 1985 as a refugee, The Globe reports. He was identified as a national security risk by Canada's security service and deported in the early 1990s.
Brar is reportedly living in Pakistan and wanted by the Indian government for minor offences.
