Hardial Singh Johal

Who is Hardial Singh Johal?

A chief engineer for the Vancouver School Board, Hardial Singh Johal was an avid follower of Talwinder Singh Parmar, and thus closely eyed in the investigation following the bombing of Air India Flight 182. He was alleged to have stored the suitcase explosives in the basement of a Vancouver school, and to have purchased the tickets for the flights on which the bombs were placed.

Moments after a wiretapped phonecall with Parmar on June 20, 1985, a man phoned Canadian Pacific Airlines where he spoke to ticket agent Martine Donahue, and purchased two tickets - one for a "Mohinderbel Singh" for Air India Flight 301 to Tokyo, and another under the name of "Jaswand Singh" for CP Air Flight 086, which was connecting to the Air India flight. The contact phone number left with the ticket agent became one of the first leads tracked by investigators, and was owned by Johal.

The initial phone conversation, as translated, included the following exchange;

Parmar: Did he write the story?

Johal: No he didn't.

Parmar: Do that work first.