BASI ASSOCIATE'S HOME RAIDED

Mandeep Sandhu Was Questioned By Police But Was Not Charged With Anything

A man hand-picked by Dave Basi to sit on the executive of the
Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca federal Liberal riding had his Victoria home
searched by police and his computer hard drive seized in early December.

Mandeep Sandhu was questioned by police but was not charged with anything.

Sandhu is related to and owns property with suspended Victoria police
Constable Ravinder (Robert) Dosanjh, who police say is linked to a 20-month
organized crime and drug investigation that resulted in raids at the
provincial legislature Dec. 28.

Police executed nine search warrants on seven premises, including the
office of Basi, the former ministerial assistant to Finance Minister Gary
Collins, and Basi's Victoria home.

Other people searched or visited by police include high-profile members of
the provincial and/or federal Liberal parties.

Also in late December, police busted a marijuana-growing operation in a
Vancouver Island home owned by Basi but rented out to tenants. Basi's
lawyer says his client didn't know about the pot.

Police seized Sandhu's computer equipment in early December, at roughly the
same time as the Dec. 7 annual general meeting to select a new executive
for the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca riding.

Les Jacques, vice-president of the riding, said Basi -- a well-connected
organizer with the federal Liberals -- more than doubled the memberships in
the riding by signing up a large number of Indo-Canadians in the summer,
just prior to the deadline for delegate selection for the meeting.

"We had in the neighbourhood of 289 to 300 people ... signed up," Jacques
said. "In August, 439 Indo-Canadians were dumped on us by Mr. Basi and group."

Jacques and his team worked with Basi's group to choose a slate of 10
directors to be acclaimed at the December meeting. They wanted an
acclamation to ensure the riding executive was a cohesive group who could
work well together to prepare for the coming election.

But on the day of the meeting, Basi made a last-minute change to the slate
to add Sandhu's name, Jacques said.

"He made the change from the floor [of the AGM]", said Jacques, 65, who
said he has participated in every provincial and federal election for the
past 48 years.

Jacques said he and other elected officials in the riding heard Sunday
about the police seizure at the house where Sandhu lives with his father.

However, Jacques said it had already been determined that Sandhu could not
fulfill his position on the executive because he does not have a Liberal
party membership.

Jacques has not been able to contact Sandhu.

The Sun could not reach him either.

The seizure from Sandhu's home happened just one week before Constable
Dosanjh was suspended Dec. 15 from the Victoria police department.

Victoria police chief Paul Battershill has said there is an "indirect
relationship" between Dosanjh and either Basi, who has been fired from his
job, or Bob Virk, the suspended ministerial assistant to Transportation
Minister Judith Reid. Virk's office was also searched by police.

Sources have told The Sun that Sandhu is also related to Amar Bajwa, a
major B.C. organizer for the federal Liberals. Bajwa refused to comment Monday.

Sources have also told The Sun the drug probe is targeting a suspected
influential Victoria trafficker related to Dosanjh.

Dosanjh and Sandhu own a house together on Weiler Avenue in Saanich. They
bought the one-storey duplex for $193,500 in February, 2000. It is now
valued at $310,000.

Sandhu's occupation is listed as a courier in real estate documents.

Lawyers for Basi and Dosanjh did not return phone calls Monday. The Sun was
unable to locate a lawyer for Sandhu.

Other people searched or visited by police Dec. 28 in connection with the
case include Pilothouse lobbying firm and its director Erik Bornman,
communications director for the federal Liberals; Bruce Clark, fundraiser
for the federal Liberals; and Clark's brother-in-law Mark Marissen,
Martin's campaign chairman in B.C.

Clark is the brother of B.C.'s deputy premier and Education Minister
Christy Clark. Marissen is her husband.

Police have released few details about the case, and the search warrants
have been sealed by the courts. No charges have been laid.

Bill Cunningham, president of the B.C. chapter of the federal Liberals,
maintained Monday that police are not targeting the party as part of the
drug and organized crime investigation.

He said he would speak with the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca riding to determine
how the Sandhu matter should be handled.

"Just because someone is involved in the party, they may very well be
involved in something untoward in their own time," Cunningham said. "But
that doesn't mean that it has anything to do with the party itself."

According to real estate documents, Dosanjh, the police officer, owns or is
associated with several other pieces of real estate in addition to the
house he owns with Sandhu.

Dosanjh owns a $261,000 two-storey Victoria-area home. His wife Satnam Kaur
Dosanjh owns a $218,000 piece of property near Victoria.

Another person named Surinder Dosanjh, whose address in the real estate
documents is the same as the police officer's, owns a $334,000 house in
Esquimalt.

Constable Dosanjh also owns a $167,900 one-storey home on Walnut Street in
Victoria with Jarnail Samra, a correctional officer.

Samra is Dosanjh's business partner in Dosam Developments. The company is
listed in the public registry of licensed residential builders on the
Homeowner Protection Office Web site.

Dosanjh is also a director of a numbered company based in Victoria. Two
other men, at least one of whom is a real estate agent, are also directors.
It is not clear if the company is still operating or what it does.

Calls to Dosam Developments, which is located in Dosanjh's house, were not
returned.

Basi is a pro-Martin organizer, but Jacques said it was unnecessary for
Basi to bring in a huge slate of voters to try to control the Esquimalt
executive because most of the people running the riding were already
supporters of the prime minister.

"All of the executive in my riding were already Paul Martin people," he said.

Jacques estimated one or two per cent of the people who live in his riding
are Indo-Canadian. The federal Liberal membership list shows nearly 64 per
cent of the 726 members signed up in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca last summer are
Indo-Canadian.

Jacques questioned how many of those Indo-Canadians are party members, and
whether they will work hard in the riding. However, he said he is happy
with the current executive in Esquimalt-Juan-de-Fuca.

"We have an extremely talented very hard-working executive. And the young
Indo-Canadians, with the exception of Mr. Sandhu, were all quite well
put-on," Jacques said.

Meanwhile, Christy Clark said Monday she has a "general" idea of the
material police asked for when they came to her home to talk to her husband
Mark Marissen, but refused to divulge that information.

Police told the couple they believed Marissen might have been the "innocent
recipient" of some documents that could help them in their investigation.

"I do know what they are -- my husband's told me -- and the RCMP were very
clear that they didn't want him to share that information [with the
public]," Clark said.

While she is aware of the general nature of the documents police requested,
she said, "it doesn't give me a vast great deal of new insight into [the
case]."

"Don't overestimate the amount of knowledge that I have because it's not a
great deal more than anybody else has."

As for her contact with fired finance ministerial assistant Dave Basi,
Clark said it was restricted to dealing with house business, such as
scheduling of legislation.