‘Assassination plots’: US inputs legally presentable, got nothing specific from Canada, says Indian envoy

Envoy: US inputs legally presentable, got nothing specific from Canada

Canada and India witnessed strains in ties following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. (File)

Washington has shared “legally presentable” inputs with Delhi on “Indian connections” in the alleged assassination plot of Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, but Ottawa has shared only “allegations” linked to separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing, Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma has said.

He also said that the Indian connections referred to by the US are not “Government of India connections”, but are linked to “people” in India.

This is the first time that a senior Indian official has drawn a distinction between what US and Canada have shared with India, regarding alleged assassination plots against Khalistan separatists in these two countries.

Within hours of a report in UK daily Financial Times last week that the US thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate Pannun on American soil and issued a warning to India over concerns that it was involved in the plot, Delhi said that it took such inputs “seriously” and these were “already being examined” by relevant departments.

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This Delhi response was very different from the manner in which it responded to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “credible allegations” about a potential link of Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar.

Envoy: US inputs legally presentable, got nothing specific from Canada

Sanjay Kumar Verma, Indian High Commissioner to Canada.

In an interview to CTV, a Canadian TV channel, High Commissioner Verma, on being asked about the US inputs, “Those inputs are a nexus between gangsters, drug peddlers, terrorists, and gun runners in the US, and there is a belief that some of the Indian connections – now when I say Indian connections, I don’t mean Government of India connections, there’s 1.4 billion people, so some of the Indian connections are there – they are ready to investigate. Because we have got inputs, which are legally presentable.”

“One is that the investigation in the case of the US, as far as I know and understand, because again, I don’t oversee India-US relations, is at a much advanced stage. And therefore, I presume that there would be better information shared within India,” he said, while responding to another question.

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In contrast, the Indian envoy said of the conversations between Indian and Canadian officials on the “allegations” levelled by Trudeau: “So conversations took place. But we needed something specific and relevant to go back to our legal authorities to seek permission to do investigation that we would have wanted to do. So, until the time that those kinds of inputs are not there, in a country of rule of law, it will not be possible for us to move forward on the investigations.”

Pressed further, he said, “So I will again repeat my position that there is no specific or relevant information for us to look into.”

Asked why India was not cooperating if it had no role in Nijjar’s killing, he said, “So there are two points on that. One is that even without an investigation being concluded, India was convicted. Is that rule of law?”

On how India was convicted when only an allegation was raised by the Canadian side, he said, “Because India was asked to cooperate. And if you look at the typical criminal terminology, when someone asks us to cooperate, which means that you have already been convicted, and you better cooperate. So we took it in a very different interpretation. But we always said that if there is anything specific and relevant, and communicated to us, we will look into it. And that had been said from day one. So we have never said, of course, we have not used the word cooperate, because we feel that’s humiliating. But we have always said that give us something specific and relevant, and we’ll look into it.”

Before Trudeau’s allegation about a potential Indian government link to the killing of Nijjar, Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor Jody Thomas had made two trips to India, The Indian Express had first reported.

Thomas came in August and met NSA Ajit Doval – a meeting also attended by the top brass of the intelligence establishment. She also accompanied Trudeau to the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September, and had a bilateral meeting with Doval on the sidelines.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trudeau had raised the potential link issue as well, which was rejected. India called the allegations “absurd and motivated”.

Asked whether the Indian government was part of the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, High Commissioner Verma said, “Absolutely not. Decidedly not. And what we have said at that time as well, that this is a motivated and absurd allegation. And this is still an allegation. Whether we call it a credible allegation, that’s the choice of word, but it’s an allegation. So from the Indian government’s side, I can assure you and your viewers that there was no government hand in the shooting of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, as it is always called.”