THE Globe and Mail says that Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma told the newspaper recently that India is not co-operating with the RCMP’s investigation into the June 18, 2023 assassination of Khalistan advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara where he was president.
This apparently contradicts what Jody Thomas told CTV in January when she was national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Thomas told CTV: ” “I think we have made advancements in that relationship and they understand what we believe happened. The RCMP investigation is well underway and so I can’t speak too much about it. And the RCMP will hopefully be able to prosecute the individuals accountable, responsible, but my discussions with my counterpart in India have been fruitful and I think they’ve moved things forward.”
But Verma told The Globe and Mail that Canada must first share evidence it has collected into Nijjar’s murder if it expects India to provide information to investigators.
The newspaper said that Verma told it both in November and in the past week that Canada has not shown India anything that ties Nijjar’s slaying to his country, which is a condition of New Delhi’s co-operation.
The Globe and Mail said that Verma told it: “We need relevant and specific evidence for us to help the Canadian authorities. Unless we see something relevant and specific, it would be extremely difficult for us to do anything to help the Canadian authorities.”
Verma also noted that Ottawa had not yet formally requested India to co-operate with the RCMP probe into Nijjar’s murder.
“The RCMP declined to comment when asked if India has been formally approached to co-operate with the Nijjar investigation,” The Globe and Mail report said.