By Ian Gunn BBC correspondent in Vancouver

The trial in Canada of three men accused of plotting the 1985 bombing of an Air India airliner, killing 329 people, has become embroiled in allegations of fraud.

A former lawyer for one of the men charged with planting the bomb on the Boeing 747 says he quit the case because he believed the defendant's family were committing fraud.

Inderjit Singh Reyat: At centre of the storm (pic courtesy of CBC)

Government officials say they are investigating the incident, which has delayed the trial by several months.

Until 11 September the bombing of Air India Flight 182 from Canada to India, which crashed off the Irish coast in June 1985, stood as history's most deadly case of air sabotage.

Since then the investigation, into what police believe was a bomb planted by Sikh militants in Vancouver, has plodded slowly forward, dogged by frequent complications and delays.

Now, a lawyer who was assigned to defend one of the accused, Inderjit Singh Reyat, says he and seven colleagues quit the case earlier this year, in part, because of fraud, which he says was being committed by the accused's family.

Government inquiry

Lawyer Gil McKinnon says Mr Reyat's son and daughter did clerical work for the defence team.

But he says, Mr Reyat's son admitted to billing the government for thousands of dollars of work the pair never performed.

Mr McKinnon says the allegations led to intense debate on the legal team and the resignation of eight lawyers.

They have since been replaced, but their sudden departure from the complex case forced the judge to delay the trial until early next year.

Government officials here say they will fully investigate the fraud allegations.

They also question why family members of the accused were paid members of the defence team.