New Delhi: A pro-Khalistan terrorist, who hijacked a Srinagar-New Delhi Indian Airlines flight in 1984 and diverted it to Lahore, has been charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India, with cheating and forgery for acquiring an Afghan passport under an assumed identity in order to migrate to Canada.

In a recent charge sheet filed here, the agency has accused Parminder Singh Saini, alias Harfan Maula, for allegedly acquiring a fake Afghan passport in the name of Balbir Singh while in Pakistan in 1995, sources said.

The agency said Saini used this passport to migrate to Canada where he got himself issued driving and social security licenses on the basis of the forged travel documents, acquired in Pakistan.

The CBI sources said although the agency had taken over the hijacking case, initially registered by Budgam police on July 5, 1984, they couldn’t proceed with litigation because Saini had already been convicted and charged with the same crime in Pakistan — which had awarded him the maximum penalty possible, a death sentence.

He was later released and migrated to Canada, said the sources.

In its charge sheet, filed in Patiala House Court, CBI has cited Letters Rogatory received from Canada where Saini was apprehended in 1995 after his fraud came to light, they said.

Saini was deported to India in 2010 after a long legal battle in Canada where he had sought permanent residency.

The hijacking had taken place on July 6, 1984, when Indian Airlines flight IC 405, an A-300 airbus, from Srinagar to New Delhi, carrying 255 passengers and a crew of nine, was forced to land in Lahore, Pakistan.

The terrorists had demanded release of Harmandar Singh Sandho, General Secretary of the All-India Sikh Students Federation, and others prominent members besides $25 million (Dh91 million) in cash in Pakistan.

Saini, who was believed to be the mastermind of the hijacking, surrendered along with seven others before Pakistani authorities after a 17-hour impasse.

Pakistan authorities refused to return these eight Sikh terrorists to India and carried out a trial in their own court, which sentenced them to death for hijacking.

Saini remained in Lahore Jail from 1984-95. In December 1989, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the then Benazir Bhutto government under a general amnesty scheme, they said citing the charge sheet.

The Pakistan government released him in 1995 with instructions to leave the country to the country of his choice within one month, the sources said.

Saini arranged a fake Afghan passport while in Pakistan to migrate to Canada February 3, 1995.

The sources claim it would not have been possible for a convicted terrorist to leave the country with a fake passport without help.

Saini managed to acquire a driver licence and social security documents while in Toronto before he was exposed by the local authorities in September 1995.

CBI sources said they carried out an investigation in Canada through Letter Rogatory. The sources said they did not carry out an investigation in Pakistan as it was not needed. They said the agency has enough evidence from Canada to prosecute him on these charges.