Amrit Singh Rai robbed $700 from a TD Bank in 2006 because of his addiction to crack cocaine. He had warned the teller he was dope sick and threatened staff with the butt of a gun.

He was granted parole last December and spent time at a recovery home. Since his recovery period is over, he will now be spending more time with his family and will be sent to a halfway home.

"Right now I am on medication and concentrating on daily prayers and workouts," Rai told the Now in a relaxed mood at his brother's home in Surrey.

Once associated with the now banned Sikh extremist group, International Sikh Youth Federation, he had become an addict partly because of depression arising out of marital discord and partly due to the hostility of colleagues who labelled him as a "traitor" for opening a dialogue with representatives of the Indian government.

The International Sikh Youth Federation is a separatist group that is at war with the Indian state. Despite being a radical, he organized blood donation camps and represented the South Asian Human Rights Group.

Rai was a baptized Sikh and sported long hair before taking drugs. He became clean shaven and lived a life of anonymity in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"Earlier, when I was a normal man, I used to honk at the drug addicts on the streets in anger. After getting into their shoes I have now learnt what it means to become an addict. From a home builder I became a homeless street person."

Rai disclosed he had to sell drugs to buy crack cocaine. He showed his picture captured on the surveillance camera of the bank he had robbed. He can be seen wearing a cap with a clean-shaven face.

He started growing back his hair while in jail and now sports a turban and flowing beard. "I am preparing myself to get baptized again."

In 2003, the Indian government tried to open dialogue with Sikh separatists. In order to bring them into the mainstream, the Indian authorities waived off the blacklist of Sikh separatists settled in Canada. Rai's subsequent visit to India raised many eyebrows and the radicals ostracized him.

Interestingly, he got a letter of support from the moderate Sikh leader and the president of a Surrey Sikh temple, Balwant Singh Gill, when his parole application came up for hearing. Despite being a staunch opponent of the extremist ideology, Gill gave a letter of support, putting aside all political differences with Rai.

Rai visited him to personally thank Gill for this unusual support. "I will never forget those who were with me in my bad times," he said.

Rai is now in a reconciliatory mood. "We have wasted all our energies in temple fights. We have to work together against drug abuse. We have ignored the problem - that's why I also became a victim."

He plans to go back to school to learn more about drug de-addiction in order to help youngsters who are taking drugs, to make them aware of its dangers using his own personal experiences.