India had sought the extradition of Lawrence Bishnoi gang members from Canada but is yet to receive a response from Ottawa, the MEA said Thursday.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that India had asked Canada to extradite members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang but New Delhi is yet to receive any response from Ottawa on the matter.
“We informed Canada about the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and its syndicates and requested their provisional arrest and extradition some years back, and also recently. However, there has been no response from Canada so far” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in the weekly media briefing on Thursday.
Jaiswal said that New Delhi had sought the extradition of Gurjit Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Arshdeep Singh Gill, Lakhbir Singh Landa, Gurpreet Singh, and members of the Bishnoi gang, but Ottawa has yet to provide a response.
The MEA spokesperson also reiterated that Canada has not shared any evidence to support its allegations of Indian state being involved in the assassination of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“We have made our position very clear on this particular matter. You would have seen that several press releases have been issued in the last two days putting out our position. Since September 2023, the Canadian government has not shared any shred of information with us”, Jaiswal said.
The MEA’s response came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who was earlier mentioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for being involved in the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Trudeau had alleged that Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadian citizens in a clandestine manner, and passing it to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The Canadian PM testified before the country’s foreign interference inquiry, claiming that Canadian agencies tried to work behind the scenes with India before he went public with the allegations. However, he admitted that the Canadian government had only provided “intelligence and no proof” in the Nijjar killing case.