Kanishka: Key accused does a somersault

A Sikh leader, whose testimony was delayed at the on-going Air-India trial after he suffered a minor heart attack, did a volte-face today by denying the charges levelled against him, saying ‘‘he never supported violence.’’ Daljit Sandhu, named by a prosecution witness as the man who picked up airline tickets which smuggled bomb-laden suitcases onto the ill-fated flight, denied charges that he had anything to do with the tickets or the bombing.

Sandhu, who had earlier hailed the bombing, lost his temper when the lawyer accused him of trying to force another man to testify on behalf of Ripudaman Singh Malik, one of the two main accused in the case.

‘‘I have a sound mind. You think I don’t know what I said? I am a respected person in the community,’’ he was quoted as saying by Toronto Star. His testimony contradicted the video footage from a demonstration in Vancouver in which he congratulated ‘‘families who have produced martyrs’’. Nearly 329 people were killed when the ill-fated jet ‘‘Kanishka’’ crashed off the coast of Ireland in 1985.

Sandhu, an associate of the two men — Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri — on trial for the attack, acknowledged that he called the man in question, but said he never threatened anyone.