In May 1986, five Canadian Sikhs were charged with plotting to blow up Air India Flight 112 in New York City. Ostensibly members of Babbar Khalsa, two were convicted and given life sentences, while three others were released. However, years later, the courts overturned the sentences and freed the remaining two men noting that the government had failed to disclose "crucial evidence" about the alleged plot, and defence lawyers argued that the men had been entrapped by police agents who invited them to a meeting, then suggested the crime, and arrested them for showing signs of agreement. With the arrests coming shortly after the Air India bombing that killed more than 300 Canadians, the Solicitor General Perrin Beatty urged Canadians not to spread fear of terrorism. Arrests The government claimed that the idea for the alleged plot was hatched on April 4, and was targeting an Air India jet leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 30 in New York. Each of the five men were from Montreal, Quebec, and it was later revealed that Khelsa had been under surveillance by Canadian Security Intelligence Service since at least May 1985, when they recorded a phone call he made to Tarwinder Singh Parmar. A petty criminal codenamed "Billy Joe", with a record for drug trafficking, use of a firearm, kidnapping and assault, approached the Sûreté du Québec and told them that he'd gotten Maninder Anand to agree to buy a stolen Cadillac, and claimed that he'd heard colleagues talk about blowing up an Air India flight. With a long record of informing on his colleagues for the past 12 years, "Billy Joe" offered to get evidence against these Sikhs in exchange for the police dropping charges against one of his friends who was facing life imprisonment. The case was largely built around an FBI mole, Frank Miele, who spoke to Khela and Dhillon in a bugged Montreal hotel room on May 19 and May 22, offering his services to them under the name of "George" at the urging of "Billy Joe", who had told them he was a member of the Mafia. Dhillon was worried because Khela had given the American $6,500 for an ostensibly stolen Cadillac, and agreed to attend the meeting to try to make sure that his friend either had his money returned or got legitimate ownership papers on the car. Dhillon later recalled that the American