POLICE OFFICER LINKED TO LEGISLATIVE RAIDS FACES NEW CHARGE

He Is Alleged To Have Obstructed Justice

VICTORIA - A Victoria police officer whose year-long suspension has
been linked to last December's police raids on the B.C. legislature
was charged Wednesday with wilfully attempting to obstruct justice.

Const. Ravinder Singh (Rob) Dosanjh is alleged to have counselled his
cousin, Mandeep Singh Sandhu, to "make false statements to
law-enforcement officials" about the origin of money seized in a
police search of his residence last December.

Sandhu's residence was searched on Dec. 9, 2003 and, six days later,
Dosanjh was suspended with pay by Victoria police. In September,
Sandhu was charged with conspiracy to traffic in marijuana.

The charges against Dosanjh were sworn in Victoria provincial court
Wednesday afternoon, and he's scheduled to make his first court
appearance on Jan. 17.

"It's not a happy day by any means," Victoria Police Chief Paul
Battershill said. "I'm disappointed."

The decision to charge Dosanjh was made by provincial special
prosecutor Bill Berardino in Vancouver. Berardino is also special
prosecutor for the breach-of-trust investigation directly tied to the
Dec. 28 raids on the legislature and is expected to make a decision on
charges in that matter within the next two weeks.

Dosanjh, a 13-year veteran who has continued on paid suspension since
Dec. 15, 2003, was unavailable to comment and a call to his lawyer was
not returned.

Battershill said Wednesday the Dosanjh case has a "quite indirect"
connection to the legislature raids case.

"This relates to the initial investigation, which was a drug
investigation, which was where this thing all started," Battershill
said. "It does not relate to the later aspects of the investigation.
There is an indirect link because the initial investigation led to
other investigations, but there's no direct link."

Sandhu, Dosanjh's cousin, is one of eight people charged in the
federal drug warrants that are linked to the legislature raids. Among
the others is Dave Basi, the one-time ministerial assistant to former
provincial finance minister Gary Collins.

The names of Basi and Sandhu were also listed in search warrant
information released by the B.C. Supreme Court related to the non-drug
investigations that are central to the raid on the legislature offices.

Last December, Sandhu was reportedly recommended by Basi, a former
federal Liberal organizer, for a director-at-large position on the
executive of the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca federal Liberal
constituency.

The legislature offices of Basi, and that of his brother-in-law and
former transportation ministry assistant Bob Virk, were searched
during the Dec. 28 raids. Police alleged in search warrant information
to make those raids that Basi and Virk had traded inside information
to a lobbyist in exchange for help with landing jobs with the federal
government.