THE country’s high commissioner to Canada has denied any involvement in the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader who was killed in British Columbia last year even though the Canadian government has named him as a person of interest in the assassination.
Sanjay Kumar Verma, who was expelled last Monday along with five other Indian diplomats, said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period Sunday that the allegations are politically motivated.
“Nothing at all,” Verma said when asked if he had any role in in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed outside a cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023.
“No evidence presented. Politically motivated.”
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home.
They said top Indian officials were then passing that information to Indian organised crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.
Verma denied the Indian government was targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
“I, as high commissioner of India, have never done anything of that kind,” he said.
Any action taken by Indian officials in Canada was “overt”, said Verma, who condemned Nijjar’s death in the interview.
“Any murder is wrong and bad,” he said. “I do condemn.”
India has rejected the Canadian accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response. — AP
