India’s High Commissioner to Canada denies any involvement in the murder of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot and killed in B.C. last year.
“Nothing at all,” Sanjay Kumar Verma answered, when asked directly about his alleged connection in the killing, in an exclusive interview on CTV’s Question Period, airing Sunday.
“No evidence presented. Politically motivated,” he also said.
And when asked by host Vassy Kapelos whether the Indian government has ever been involved in the targeting of certain individuals, with an end goal of their death, Verma said: “Never.”
Verma’s comments come just days after the RCMP and the federal government accused Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada of engaging in clandestine activities linked to serious criminal activity in this country, including homicides and extortions.
It’s also been little more than a year since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons and said there were “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in Nijjar’s murder. Relations between the two countries have been tense ever since.
In response to Monday’s allegations, Canada expelled six diplomats, including Verma. India kicked out six Canadian diplomats in retaliation.
“The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly in a statement on Monday.
When presented with Joly’s verbatim explanation by Kapelos, Verma accused her of “talking politically.”
“Let me see the concrete evidence she’s talking about,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, she’s talking politically. As I’m concerned, she has got nothing in her hand.”
Verma also explicitly said he condemns Nijjar’s murder, when asked directly by Kapelos.
“Any murder is wrong and bad. I do condemn and that is what I’ve said in many interviews. Let’s get to the bottom of the issue,” Verma said.
‘Not a shred of evidence’ shared
Since Trudeau’s address to the House of Commons last September, Indian officials have refused to co-operate in an investigation.
Asked why India is still refusing to co-operate, despite these new accusations, Verma claimed “not a shred of evidence has been shared with us.”
“Unfortunately, we have not got anything from any Canadian official, which can lead us to a better spot,” he said.
According to the RCMP, Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn made attempts earlier this month to meet with his Indian counterparts to present evidence, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
Flynn, along with National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) Nathalie Drouin and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison then met with Indian government officials over the weekend, prior to Monday’s allegations, to share evidence and urge their co-operation, but India refused to waive diplomatic immunity for Verma and his five other colleagues so they could be questioned.
Asked by Kapelos why Indian officials were unwilling to see the evidence, Verma said “proper visas were not there.”
“Visas needs to be affixed for any delegation,” he said. “For any government delegation to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all.”
“So therefore, it was largely technical,” he added.
When pressed repeatedly by Kapelos whether that explanation leaves “Canadians with the impression that (the Indian) government does have something to hide,” Verma insisted “absolutely not.”
“In fact, we have been asking for (evidence) for the last one year, which the RCMP has also said,” Verma said. “And then if you do not share with us the reason for your visit, how do we know?”
In an interview also airing Sunday on CTV’s Question Period, Canada’s High Commissioner to India Cameron MacKay said he can “conclusively” say Canadian officials have had “meetings at multiple levels” since August 2023 to try and share information with India.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we have shared more than sufficient information and evidence with the Indian side up to now at every level of the Canadian government and the Indian government,” MacKay said.
India, meanwhile, is cooperating in a U.S. investigation in a foiled assassination plot last year to murder Sikh activist and dual U.S.-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City. On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee after an Indian government committee investigating the case visited Washington this week. The unsealed indictment also connects that assassination attempt to Nijjar’s case.
Asked by Kapelos about the linked cases, Verma repeatedly rebuffed any connection, adding an “indictment is not a conviction.”
“And therefore, logically, it will follow its judicial process,” he said.
MacKay said he believes India is responding to Canada and the U.S. differently for its own domestic political reasons.
“India has elaborated a kind of a false distinction between what has happened in the United States and what has happened in Canada, and it’s been very successful for them in terms of domestic media coverage, but internationally, I don’t think that’s the case,” MacKay told Kapelos.
Allegations of collecting information through coercion
On Monday, the RCMP also accused Indian diplomats of leveraging their positions to coerce individuals and businesses to collect information for the Government of India on pro-Khalistan activists.
Verma also denied those claims.
“I, as High Commissioner of India, have never done anything of that kind. That is one,” Verma said. “Second, my colleagues, do we want to know what pro-Khalistani elements in Canada are doing? Yes, we do. That’s my national interest.”
But when asked by Kapelos if the means used to collect that information were legal or illegal, Verma said the collection of that information “is all overt.”
“There is nothing covert. It’s all overt,” Verma said. “So we read the newspapers, we read their statements, since we understand Punjabi. So we read their social media posts, and try to infer from there.”
The Khalistan movement supports the establishment of an independent Sikh state in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government has long condemned that movement and has been critical of Canada for not opposing Sikh separatism within its own borders.
With files from CTV News’ Brennan MacDonald and Spencer Van Dyk
You can watch the High Commissioner’s full interview on CTV’s Question Period at 11 a.m. EST.