Crown prosecutors in British Columbia say they are not being vindictive by charging convicted Air India bomb-maker Inderjit Singh Reyat with perjury.

"[Allegations] that this is a matter of persecution, or sour grapes, on the part of the prosecution are wrong," said Geoff Gaul, a spokesman for the Crown attorney's office. "This is simply another avenue that the Crown, the prosecution, are entitled to proceed with, and in our view it's appropriate to do so."

Formal charges were filed against Reyat on Friday. The indictment lists 27 times when he allegedly misled the court during his testimony in September 2003.

Inderjit Singh Reyat (CP file photo)

The perjury charges arose from Reyat's testimony at the trial of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik. Both men were acquitted last March of murder and conspiracy charges in connection with the 1985 bombing of the Air India flight and a bomb that exploded the same day at Tokyo's Narita airport. Two baggage handlers were killed in that explosion.

Earlier this week, Reyat's lawyer John Hill said the Crown was being vindictive and that the perjury charge was designed to keep Reyat behind bars.

If Reyat is found guilty of perjury he could face up to 14 years in prison. His first court appearance on the perjury charge will be March 27.

The former Duncan. B.C. auto mechanic is the only person ever convicted in the Air India bombings which killed 329 people, most of them Canadians. He is serving a five-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

During his testimony as a Crown witness at the Malik and Bagri trial, Reyat claimed to remember little or nothing about the circumstances of the plot, including the name of a man who supplied him with bomb parts and stayed at his home for almost a week.

A Crown lawyer called his words "a pack of lies."