VANCOUVER: June 8, 2004
The Canadian Press

A man whose testimony was delayed at the Air India trial after he suffered a heart attack shouted angrily at a Crown prosecutor who accused him Tuesday of trying to force another man to testify for the defence.

Daljit Singh Sandhu, a longtime associate of the two men on trial for the attack, has been accused of buying the tickets that were used to smuggle bomb-laden suitcases onto an Air India flight in June 1985.

Crown lawyer Joe Bellows suggested Sandhu had used threats to try to force another man to testify on behalf of Ripudaman Singh Malik, one of the two accused of plotting the bombing.

"I have a sound mind,'' Sandhu yelled from the witness box.

"You think I don't know what I said? I am a respected person in the community. Not a single person can say I've told a lie in 30 years.''

As he shouted, family members of some of the 329 people killed in the bombing broke into loud laughter.

Sandhu whipped off his glasses, shoved them in his shirt pocket and folded his arms across his chest.

Justice Ian Josephson implored him to calm down.

Under cross-examination, Sandhu admitted to calling friends to try to get information to discredit witnesses who testified against Malik.

He acknowledged he called the man in question repeatedly, but said he never threatened anyone.

Frightened, the man called police, who have since launched an investigation, court heard.

Earlier, Sandhu said neither Malik nor his co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri ever asked him for help in the bombing plot.

"No, no. Not at all. I had nothing to do with this,'' said the 67-year-old, showing no signs of the heart attack court was told he suffered just over a week ago, delaying his testimony.

Sandhu is a prominent founding member of the World Sikh Organization, which fought for the creation of a Sikh homeland.

He was at the heart of the Vancouver Sikh community, running the Ross Street temple for more than a decade. The temple was the largest in North America at the time and Sandhu would greet more than 6,000 worshippers on Sundays alone.

Malik sold religious books at the temple and asked Sandhu for support when he was establishing Khalsa credit unions and schools.

Sandhu attended meetings with Malik, but said their relationship didn't go beyond that.

"My family never went to his house, he never came to my house,'' he said.

In a strong voice, he denied evidence given by a woman who was Malik's confidante and who testified that Malik asked Sandhu to buy airline tickets.

She also testified it was Sandhu who spoke to a booking agent and went to pay cash for the tickets and that he called to change names and phone numbers on them. Sandhu denied it all.

The passengers for whom the tickets were purchased never boarded the plane. The Crown alleges Malik and Bagri arranged to have the bags packed with explosives and loaded in Vancouver.

Sandhu attended a conference of thousands of angry Sikhs from around the world in Madison Square Garden just after the Indian raid and listened to Bagri give a speech. Court has heard Bagri whipped the crowd into a frenzy, calling for his Sikh brothers to pick up arms and murder Hindus in retaliation.

It was there that the World Sikh Organization was formed with the aim of establishing Khalistan, an independent homeland.

Sandhu was one of the founding leaders, but said he didn't believe in violence. He instead lobbied governments and the United Nations.

He said he denounced the bombing of Air India, which killed members of the Ross Street temple.

"I told the congregation this was a crime against the Sikh community and those who have done it should be punished according to the law of the land,'' said Sandhu, who wears his hair bound in a tall royal blue turban with a flash of orange fabric in front.

That same year he said his role as a community leader required him to help the suspected mastermind of the Air India bombing get out of jail.

He said he used his own money to hire a lawyer and bought him a plane ticket to Nanaimo to act on behalf of Talwinder Singh Parmar.

"When you are involved in the community like that you help people. It's your duty to help a person until they are proven guilty.''

Parmar was the founding leader of the Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh terrorist group, with Bagri as his second in command. He was killed by Indian police in 1992.

Malik's confidante, who can't be named under a court order, said the conspirator she fingered as Sandhu wore a fancy ring.

The anchor of Malik's defence team, David Crossin, showed 16 pictures of Sandhu taken in the 1980s and '90s with government ministers and Sikh leaders that show his hands are unadorned by any ring.

"I never wore a ring, even up until now,'' Sandhu said.