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Vancouver: India’s High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said Canada’s police investigation into the June killing of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia has been harmed by public statements by a high-level Canadian official. Canada had accused India of involvement in the killing of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, Vancouver.
India had rejected these allegations of Canada. Since then, diplomatic relations between the two countries have reached their lowest level. India and Canada have also expelled each other’s two top diplomats in this matter. Apart from this, India had also stopped visa service for Canada for a few days, which was later restarted.
“I would go one step further and say that now the investigation has already been tainted,” High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma said in an interview with the Globe and Mail. “There have been instructions from someone at a high level to say that India or Indian agents are behind this.” Verma did not reveal the name of the high level officer. On September 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Canadian security agencies are actively pursuing credible allegations of a possible connection between Indian government agents and Nijjar’s death.”
Sanjay Kumar Verma said that Canada or Canada’s allies have not shown India concrete evidence that Indian agents were involved in Nijjar’s murder. He said that despite strained relations between the two countries, India would like to expand trade ties and return to the negotiating table on trade deals.
This matter has created a diplomatic dispute between the two countries. In September, India had asked Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence in New Delhi following Canada’s allegations over Sikh’s killing. After this Canada recalled 41 diplomats from India. In September, Canada halted talks on a proposed trade treaty with India, just three months after the two countries said they aimed to seal an initial agreement this year.
