New Delhi: Following a Canadian media report that law enforcement has tracked down two persons connected to the murder of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, India said it has assured Ottawa that it will “look into” whatever “specific and relevant information” is shared with New Delhi related to the investigation.
Citing anonymous sources, the outlet Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday that two persons allegedly involved in the killing on June 18 this year, in the town of Surrey in British Columbia have been “under surveillance” for months and are expected to be arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in “a matter of weeks.”
The report said that these persons never left Canada after the killing. “The sources said police will explain the alleged assassins’ involvement and that of the Indian government when charges are laid against the two men,” the outlet reported.
Notably, the Indo-Canadian bilateral relationship came under a cloud after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a link between Indian agents and the murder. Nijjar, considered a terrorist by India, was the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ’s principal in the province of British Columbia.
References to his murder were included in the indictment in a Federal Court in New York against Indian national Nikhil Gupta in November in a case related to an alleged foiled plot to kill SFJ’s general counsel Gurpatwant Pannun.
That murder is being investigated by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team or IHIT. In an update in August, IHIT stated that it had confirmed that a 2008 silver Toyota Camry was used to drive away the two “heavy-set” and masked suspects in the killing and a third person was involved in driving the getaway vehicle. It also released a grainy image of the driver of the car, which was captured by CCTV in the vicinity.
