One week after the acquittals in the Air India trial comes new information that both Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were named as members of the plot by the wife of the only person ever convicted in connection with the case.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, called "an unmitigated liar" by a judge, is still the only person tried and convicted in connection with the deaths of 329 people on an Air India flight in 1985, as well as the deaths of two baggage handlers in Tokyo. He has always refused to name his co-conspirators and has always claimed that he really feels for the victims.

"In my mind, I never ever hurt anyone, never will, " Reyat said in a 1998 interview.

Ajaib Singh Bagri

"You know, I'm scared to kill a fly. How can I take people's life, innocent people? Those people that die on the plane, they [were] related to me as well. They [were] like my family, I really felt for them."

But Satnam Reyat, who refused to testify at the trial after receiving threats so serious that, at one point, the RCMP had to remove her from her home and take her to a secret location, has named Bagri and Malik as co-conspirators.

Her story emerges from hitherto secret documents filed at Vancouver's courthouse by the the RCMP in a bid to question Satnam Reyat in an investigative hearing under Canada's new anti-terrorism law.

Ripudaman Singh Malik

The documents, only unsealed after last Wednesday's verdict, include a sworn affidavit by RCMP Sgt. Daniel Bond which lays out some startling revelations that were never heard in court.

Bond's affidavit says Satnam Reyat knows the inside story because, he says, she told a friend that both Malik and Bagri were involved in the bombing. The RCMP quote Mrs. Reyat as saying it was Bagri and the late Talwinder Singh Parmar - the ringleader of the plot - who recruited her husband.

She's also quoted as saying Reyat "promised ... that he would do the project and wouldn't talk about it" and that Reyat made that promise at a meeting attended by Malik.

Finally, Bond says, Mrs. Reyat received repeated threats, called the RCMP for protection and refused to testify at the trial.

"This is a sworn affidavit by an RCMP officer who is presumably a person of trust and it should have been in front of Judge [Bruce] Josephson to decide," said Susheel Gupta, whose mother died on the Air India flight.

"If [Prime Minister Paul] Martin has any integrity and if the Liberal government entirely has any integrity, they will proceed with a public inquiry."

Some of the information in the RCMP's affidavit comes from wiretaps, some from the RCMP itself and some from what Satnam Reyat said to her friend, who is the unidentified 'Mrs. X' who testified that Malik confessed his involvement in the bombing to her.

'Mrs. X' was not asked about hearsay, or what she heard from Mrs. Reyat, so the judge never heard it. What he did hear, though, was that Mrs. Reyat received generous financial support of over $100,000 from Malik.

Mrs. Reyat lived rent-free at the Malik's Khalsa school in surrey. She also received free schooling for her four children, as well as free legal advice , plus cash and cheques from Malik.

The Crown called that "hush money." The judge disagreed, but the families of the victims had no doubts.

However, it makes little difference whether Satnam Reyat refused to testify because of money or threats. The RCMP say they are considering pressing on with investigative hearings under the Anti-terrorism Act in the hope of getting new evidence and she might not be the only one called.

But the verdict is in and the judge never heard the story that might have been told by the bombmaker's wife.