At 3:19 p.m. on June 23, 1985 a suitcase exploded as baggage from a CP Air flight from Vancouver was being transferred in Tokyo to an Air-India flight. Two baggage handlers were killed in the blast.

Less than one hour later, all 329 persons aboard an Air-India flight to Bombay from Toronto were killed when the airliner exploded in the air off the Irish coast. Some of the baggage aboard the Air-India flight originated in Vancouver.

The investigation into Inderjit Singh Reyat's terrorist activities began well before his suitcase-bomb exploded prematurely in the South Terminal at Tokyo's Narita Airport.

But it required a five-year investigation in Canada and Japan, an extradition hearing in London and a six-month trial in Vancouver to convict him Friday of manslaughter.

The exercise cost an estimated $4.5 million.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew well in advance that Reyat was in contact with Burnaby resident Talwinder Singh Parmar, the leader of a militant Sikh organization.

Three weeks before the Tokyo airport blast, CSIS agents trailed Parmar and Reyat to a remote bush area on Vancouver Island, where the two tested a small explosive device.

In the ensuing weeks, Reyat was able not only to acquire material to build a bigger bomb in his Duncan home, but also to pass the device to associates who, perhaps without his knowledge, placed it aboard the Tokyo-bound airliner.

Clive Nicholls, the English barrister who represented the Canadian government at Reyat's extradition hearing in London in 1988, describes Reyat as "a fairly simple, devout family man," who may have been used by others.

"He may, as a devout Sikh, have been recruited by others more powerful, sophisticated and influential than himself, but he is nonetheless responsible for the (Narita) explosion," Nicholls says.

Reyat was first linked with Sikh militants on June 4, 1985 when CSIS agents followed Parmar and another East Indian man aboard a Nanaimo-bound ferry at Horseshoe Bay.

Retired CSIS agent Larry Lowe, a member of the surveillance team, recalled that Parmar, dressed in a long white tunic and orange turban, was met at the Nanaimo ferry terminal by a car driven by another East Indian male.

The CSIS agents followed the target vehicle 50 kilometres south to Duncan, where Parmar went directly to Reyat's home on the outskirts of the town. Reyat then drove Parmar to Auto Marine Electric, his place of employment.

After a brief stop at the company's workshop, the vehicle containing Parmar and Reyat drove down a dead-end road about eight kilometres west of the town and stopped near a deserted bush area.

The surveillance team, keeping well back to avoid being seen, watched as Reyat and Parmar walked into the bush. Minutes later, the agents heard a loud bang. They decided it was a rifle shot.

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Since Parmar, not Reyat, was the target of the costly surveillance operation, CSIS didn't continue to watch the Duncan man. The service simply asked the RCMP to run a routine background check on Reyat, which was done.

And since no one could show Parmar and Reyat were engaged in criminal activity, authorities were unable to prevent the events that were to occur three weeks later on opposite sides of the globe.

Investigators, in fact, have since been unable to prove a bomb exploded aboard the Air-India flight off the Irish Coast. No charges have been laid in connection with that tragedy.

But records of ticket purchases on both flights indicate the two incidents were connected.

Authorities believe both incidents were staged in response to the Indian government's bloody assault in 1984 on Sikh militants who occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

They believe two suitcase bombs were built in B.C. and were timed to explode simultaneously when the two Air-India jets were airborne. Fortunately, the Tokyo bomb detonated prematurely, before the suitcase from the CP Air Flight was placed aboard the Air-India jet.

Within minutes of the Tokyo explosion, a large force of officers from the Chiba Prefectural Police embarked on the monumental task of combing the blast site for evidence.

The area was covered with debris up to 15 centimetres deep, much of it soaked in water from overhead sprinkler valves, and the officers spent more than four weeks sifting for minute fragments.

After visual examination, all potential evidence was sent to either the National Research Institute of Police Science in Tokyo or to the Chiba police department's Scientific Research Institute.

Scientists at the two laboratories subjected the debris to complex tests, using sophisticated techniques such as infra-red absorption spectrum analysis, thin-layer chromotography and energy dispersion x-ray analysis.

The first break in the Tokyo case came when one of the laboratories identified a metal fragment from the face-plate of a Sanyo tuner, model FMT 611K. Other tests identified fragments from a cardboard box in which the tuner was packed, as well as the foam packing.

Analysis of other fragments during the next two years indicated the bomb included a Micronta car clock as a timer, an electrical relay as a switch, an Eveready 12-volt battery as a power source, a can of Liquid Fire starting fluid, single-base smokeless gunpowder, a blasting cap as the igniter and a high-explosive charge.

Experts were puzzled by the starting fluid and the gunpowder, neither of which was a necessary component. But their inclusion, viewed as a hallmark or signature, would ultimately strengthen the case against Reyat.

The Japanese scientists determined that the bomb, housed in the Sanyo tuner, had been concealed in a piece of soft-sided luggage, brand name Jetstream, which was unloaded at the Narita Airport from CP Air Flight 003 from Vancouver.

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How did the terrorists manage to get the suitcase-bomb aboard the airliner?

Investigators determined that on June 19 1985 a man who identified himself as "L. Singh" phoned CP Air in Vancouver and booked seats on two flights scheduled to connect with Air-India flights.

The first reservation, in the name of Jaswand Singh, was for a flight from Vancouver to Montreal, where it was to connect with an Air-India flight to New Dehli.

The second booking, in the name of Mohinderbel Singh, was for one economy seat June 22, 1985 aboard CP Air Flight 003 from Vancouver to Narita, where it was to connect with an Air-India flight to Bangkok.

Police learned that "Mr. Singh," the day after he made the reservations, came to the CP Air reservations office in Vancouver and picked up the tickets. He paid cash.

The day Flight 003 was to depart Vancouver, a "Mr. L. Singh" checked in one piece of baggage and was assigned seat 38H aboard the airliner. But "L. Singh" did not present a flight coupon, the document a departing passenger hands in at the gate.

Japanese businessman Toshichiro Kobayashi would subsequently tell police that seat 38H, directly in front of him, had remained empty throughout the flight to Narita. No one ever claimed a refund.

Flight 003 left Vancouver International Airport at 1:37 p.m. on June 22, 1985 and arrived at Narita eight minutes ahead of schedule at 2:41 p.m. (Japanese Standard Time) on June 23, 1985.

At 3:19 p.m. JST a powerful explosion ripped through the south terminal of the airport as a ground crew was unloading baggage containers from the CP Air flight. Baggage handlers Hindeharu Koda and Hideo Assano were killed and four others were injured.

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Since Flight 003 originated in Vancouver, a task force of 135 RCMP officers was assigned in B.C. to check all retail outlets that sold Sanyo tuners in the months preceding the blast.

Meanwhile, senior Vancouver prosecutor James Jardine, assigned to assist police, suggested someone should ask CSIS if the agency had been monitoring the activities of Sikh militants in B.C.

The intelligence agency told the RCMP that, between March and July 1985, it had a tap on Parmar's home phone in Burnaby. The phone log indicated Parmar had called Reyat on several occasions.

And the agency also provided details of the surveillance operation in which Parmar was seen meeting with Reyat in Duncan. The CSIS agents noted the two men appeared to have fired a rifle shot when they entered the bush.

But subsequent sound tests by RCMP explosives experts indicated the loud bang the CSIS agents heard was similar to the sound of the detonation of a blasting cap.

And when RCMP searched the bush area to which Parmar and Reyat were trailed by CSIS, they found two aluminum blasting cap shunts and a paper bundle wrapper from a blasting cap.

Meanwhile, police inquiries at retail stores throughout the province paid dividends.

A clerk at a Woolworth's store in Duncan told an RCMP officer she sold a Sanyo tuner, model FMT 611K, to an East Indian man on June 5, 1985, the day after Parmar visited Reyat in Duncan. Sales records indicated the tuner was purchased by Reyat, who wrote his home telephone number on the charge slip.

Further inquiries in Duncan appeared to tie Reyat even closer to the Tokyo bomb.

Police learned Reyat, on May 8, 1985, bought a Micronta car clock at a Radio Shack store in Duncan. And on June 4, 1985, the day he met with Parmar, Reyat bought two electrical relays at the same store.

The day following Parmar's visit, investigators discovered, Reyat bought single base smokeless gunpowder from Bucky's Sporting Goods store in Duncan. He signed the explosives log, "I. Reyat."

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Assigned to head the investigation in Duncan was RCMP Cpl. (now Sgt.) Doug Henderson. The officer already knew Reyat, a skilled auto electrician, having previously consulted him about the electrical system in his pickup truck.

Henderson visited Reyat in his home about two months after the Narita explosion and returned about five weeks later. The officer didn't tell Reyat he was investigating the bombing. He said he wanted to talk about appointing an East Indian liaison officer for the community.

Reyat, a handsome, bearded man in a black turban, met with Henderson in the L-shaped livingroom of his home. His wife and their four children - three girls and a boy - remained in the kitchen.

As Reyat talked about the $300,000 Sikh Temple he helped build, Henderson was busily trying to take a look at Reyat's stereo system, hoping to determine if the tuner-amplifier was a Sanyo. It wasn't.

When the officer worked the conversation around to the crash of the Air-India jet, Reyat clammed up.

On Nov. 6, 1985, about 4 1/2 months after the Narita explosion, police decided to arrest Reyat as he left his place of work at the end of the day.

Grounds for the arrest included his involvement in the test explosion, his acquisition of electrical items corresponding to the components of the bomb and the inquiries he had made about detonating dynamite by remote control.

Reyat, dressed in a royal blue turban, T-shirt, work pants and black boots, looked surprised when Henderson flashed his police ID outside Auto Marine Electric and said: "You are under arrest."

Told the charges against him included (at the time) conspiracy to commit murder, as well as a number of explosives-related charges, Reyat said: "No, no. What are you talking about?"

The suspect drove Henderson back to the RCMP detachment office, while Henderson's partner, Cpl. (now Sgt.) Glen Rockwell, followed behind in an unmarked police car.

At the detachment office, Henderson and Rockwell embarked on a long interrogation of the suspect. The officers questioned him in a room containing a hidden microphone wired to a tape-recorder.

A tape-recording of the 4 1/2 -hour interview indicates the quiet-spoken Henderson did most of the talking. He adopted a 'nice guy' approach. Rockwell, a hard-nosed cop with a tendency to raise his voice, interjected occasional questions. He played the 'nasty guy.'

Early in the interview, Reyat denied all knowledge of the test blast, and told the officers he didn't know Parmar. Confronted with the CSIS surveillance report, he changed his story.

Pressed about his involvement with Parmar, Reyat agreed the Sikh militant told him he wanted to build a device that would make a large explosion, something to take out a bridge.

Reyat, insisting Parmar said he wanted to take the device back to India, told the officers he was unable to make a large explosion. He said he used gunpowder in the test and the device fizzled.

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The Crown didn't proceed at the time with the conspiracy to commit murder charge. Reyat pleaded guilty on April 29, 1986 in Duncan provincial court to possession of an explosive substance and possession of an unregistered firearm.

Prosecutors stayed the charge that Reyat made an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or property, and another of making an explosive substance with intent to enable another person to endanger life or property.

Reyat was fined a total of $2,000.

Three months later, with authorities lacking sufficent evidence to hold him, Reyat and his family moved to England. The family took up residence in Coventry, northwest of London, where Reyat found employment at a Jaguar automobile plant.

He was to remain there, undisturbed by the authorities, for almost two years.

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Meanwhile, RCMP sergeants Ed Drozda and Bob Stubbings, working closely with prosecutor Jardine, continued to amass further evidence of Reyat's involvement in the Narita explosion.

Jardine and the two officers, assisted by RCMP explosives expert Dr. Alexander Beveridge and Japanese scientists, were able to determine the components of the bomb and prove Reyat had acquired similar items.

Jardine, who said Drozda and Stubbings, as trial coordinators, "quarterbacked" him at Reyat's six-month-long trial in B.C. Supreme Court, visited Tokyo five times for talks with Japanese authorities.

The senior prosecutor, who gained experience of security matters when he prosecuted the so-called Squamish Five for terrorist activities, said the Japanese scientists helped strenghten the case when they identified a Liquid Fire container from the blast site debris.

Jardine said External Affairs became involved late in 1986, when Canada sent a diplomatic note to Japan formally asking for evidence to be sent to Canada for a possible criminal trial.

Meanwhile, after discussing the matter with officials within the B.C. attorney-general's ministry, Jardine decided there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge Reyat with murder. He recommended two manslaughter charges and five explosives-related counts.

Jardine took the indictment charging Reyat with the offences to Ottawa - and the Canadian government formally requested Britain to begin extradition proceedings.

Serious-crimes branch officers of New Scotland Yard and uniformed officers of the West Midlands Police arrested Reyat at 7:45 a.m. on Feb. 5, 1988 as he drove from his home to the Jaguar car plant. He was taken to Paddington Police Station in London, where he was interviewed by British police and RCMP.

After protracted extradition proceedings in London, including an appeal to the High Court of Justice, Reyat was ordered returned to Canada. He was flown to Vancouver on Dec. 13, 1989 and his trial began Sept. 18, 1990.

The non-jury trial, at which Jardine and associate prosecutors Richard Cairns and Gordon Matei called 200 Crown witnesses, lasted 62 days over a six-month period. Reyat was represented by Vancouver lawyer Mark Hilford.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Raymond Paris, who spent five weeks considering his verdict, decided Friday that Reyat was guilty on two counts of manslaughter and five explosives charges.

Talwinder Singh Parmar, the wealthy Sikh militant for whom Reyat conducted the test blast, disappeared in late 1986. Authorities believe he is now living somewhere in Pakistan.