Pubdate: Wed, 17 May 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew

DRUG STING ON VICTORIA COP LED TO RAID ON LEGISLATURE

"Oh, god," a Victoria police detective sighed when accused of being 
partners with his cousin in a drug-trafficking organization uncovered 
by a skein of investigations that culminated with the raid on the 
B.C. legislature.

In a dramatic and riveting video recording made by the RCMP 
anti-corruption squad, Const. Ravinder (Rob) Dosanjh looked wan and 
drained when confronted with the results of a six-month investigation 
into his family ties and honesty.

He steadfastly maintained throughout the Dec. 15, 2003 interview with 
RCMP Insp. Don Adam that he did not compromise any case or leak 
information to his relative, accused drug-dealer, Mandeep Singh Sandhu.

"I'm not involved," Dosanjh stammered. "I know the difference between 
right and wrong. At least I think I do. I see what you got. It's not 
looking good."

He appeared devastated by the accusations.

This is the first of several trials that are in the judicial pipeline 
as a result of what is described as "a monster" of connected but 
independent investigations 21/2 years ago that triggered the 
unprecedented search of provincial government offices on Dec. 28, 2003.

Sandhu's home was raided Dec. 9, 2003, and he and eight others face 
federal drug conspiracy charges involving cross-border trafficking. 
Six days later, Dosanjh was arrested and suspended from his job with 
pay. A year later he was charged and fired.

Two weeks after Dosanjh was arrested, police, in an unprecedented 
move, executed warrants on the parliamentary precincts.

They charged Dave Basi, former ministerial assistant to former 
finance minister Gary Collins, in connection with the drug 
investigation and another separate breach of trust inquiry. Also 
charged in the influence-peddling case was Bob Virk, an assistant to 
then transportation minister Judith Reid.

Those trials are slated for later this year.

Tuesday, in the second day of his trial in Vancouver for obstruction 
of justice, Dosanjh sat glumly, his chin in his left hand, reading a 
transcript of the video as it played.

His wife Satnam sat in the front row of the small, deserted public 
gallery stoically doing the same.

Dosanjh appeared shattered throughout the interview.

 From all accounts, he was a well-respected, exemplary police officer 
for 13 years.

He voluntarily agreed to the lengthy taped interrogation.

The video recording was played as part of a voir dire -- a trial 
within a trial, being conducted by Provincial Court Judge Carol Baird 
Ellan to determine if it is admissible as evidence.

Dosanjh maintained throughout that he was nothing more than a 
concerned relative trying to help his younger cousin escape a 
criminal lifestyle: If he made mistakes in judgment, they were 
because he faced a dilemma between familial loyalty and public duty.

During their meeting, though, Adam evoked from the surveillance and 
surreptitiously recorded conversations a more sinister picture.

Among the points in the prosecution's case is the fact that Dosanjh 
did not come forward and tell his colleagues he was related to 
someone they had in their sights.

"I don't know why I didn't tell anyone," he muttered.

In the eyes of the investigators, Dosanjh was less the well-meaning 
cousin and more a would-be consigliere providing advice on what to 
tell investigators, warnings not to talk on tapped telephones and 
providing a key tip about an impending raid.

"You loved [Sandhu] and you were trying to protect him," Adam said. 
"That's bad judgment, but you went further when you alerted him the 
search was coming."

The Mounties had deliberately fed Dosanjh false information about a 
looming, supposedly American-led raid on Sandhu's drug business in 
the hope of flushing out a dirty cop.

Within days, the prosecution says the Victoria constable called his 
cousin and afterwards Sandhu began dismantling grow-operations and 
apparently destroying evidence.

"You told him about the pending search," averred Adam, a 32-year 
veteran of the RCMP who is an interrogation specialist brought in to 
close cases.

"I did not say that," Dosanjh insisted, shaking his head and casting 
his eyes to the floor. "I did not tell him."

Still, Dosanjh looked more and more devastated as the interview wore 
on. "There's a lot of things that make me look wrong in this but at 
no time was I trying to stop him being investigated or charged with 
anything," he pleaded.

The intercepted communications suggested otherwise. After Sandhu's 
arrest, for instance, there was a flurry of phone calls and in one 
Dosanjh told Sandhu to claim the $35,000 they found in his home 
belonged to his dad.

"I don't think I crossed over," Dosanjh said. "I look like an idiot, 
it looks real bad."

"I don't want to play cat and mouse with you," Adam said 
incredulously. "I want you to come out of this with face, some pride. 
. . . You gave him that info. You did."

Dosanjh shook his head.

"Do you see what's happened to you?" Adam continued. "Mandeep has 
systematically used you."

"I see that now," Dosanjh acknowledged.

"Does any of that sound like good straight-up policing?" Adam asked.

"No, it doesn't," Dosanjh whispered.

"This [$35,000] is drug money he's talking about, and you're talking 
about it," Adam added.

Dosanjh choked up and, for a moment, it appeared he was going to 
break down emotionally.

"You okay?" the empathetic Mountie asked.

"I'm fine," Dosanjh replied. "It's probably drug money." He paused, 
then conceded: "I'm sure it's drug money."

"This sounds like you're partners," Adam said. "It's criminal is what 
it is. . . . Full partners' discussion, that's what this is. . . . 
It's beyond stupid."

Dosanjh said: "My head's spinning right now trying to recall. I would 
not tell [Sandhu] about a search warrant and jeopardize an 
investigation like that."

Adam held out the transcripts of the intercepted conversations and 
the two stared at them silently.

"You've been used," Adam concluded. "But you allowed yourself to be 
used and as we sit here we both know you crossed the line . . . . 
There is no doubt in my mind that you stepped into that criminal 
arena and breached your public trust."

"I thought I was helping him. . . . I'm not involved with these 
guys," Dosanjh pleaded. "I'm not making money off them. . . . I did 
not tell them about the search warrant -- I'd never do that. I'm not 
a crooked cop. There are no payoffs or anything like that."

Adam stared.

"[The investigators] do know, trust me," he assured him.

"They're going to prove it. . . . The mistakes you made were small 
steps that led you into obstruction and doing wrong."

He stood up, ending the interview by extending his hand.

"Anyway, good luck, you take care," Adam said.

The trial continues.
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