THE outgoing national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Jody Thomas , told CTV’s Vassy Kapelos in an interview that India is now cooperating with Canada in the investigation into the June 18. 2023 assassination of Khalistan advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar, outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara where he was president.
Thomas said: “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.”
INCIDENTALLY, as The VOICE reported on December 27, The Globe and Mail had claimed that sources told them that Nijjar’s killers have been under police surveillance for months and are “expected to be arrested by the RCMP in a matter of weeks.”
The newspaper said that the sources said that the alleged killers never left Canada after the murder. “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 report stated.
On September 18, 2023, Trudeau had sent shock waves around the world when he revealed in the House of Commons that Canadian security agencies had been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between Government of India agents and Nijjar’s assassination.
However, the Indian government pooh-poohed Trudeau’s claim even after a superseding indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last November revealed that Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 52, had been charged with murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in connection with his participation in a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. A senior Biden administration source was quoted by a U.S. newspaper as saying the target was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice.
The indictment also stated that on or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) undercover officer that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.” Also, on or about June 20, 2023, an Indian government agency employee sent Gupta a news article about the “Victim” [Pannun] and messaged Gupta, “[i]t’s [a] priority now.”
WHEN Thomas was asked if the change in India’s attitude had been spurred on by what transpired in the United States, she told CTV: “I think the two are connected for sure and the U.S. judicial system is different than ours and they do indictments in a way we don’t and they were investigating a conspiracy and we were investigating a murder … so the information that they revealed supported our position and our assertions with India and India is working with us – my counterpart particularly – far more closely to resolve this.”
However, Thomas, while asserting: “We think it’s important that we resolve what happens to a Canadian citizen,” emphasized the importance of ties between the two countries, pointing out the “huge [Indian] diaspora” in Canada.
She added: “Again, we have to have a trade relationship. Our ability to function in the Indo-Pacific does rely on having a healthy relationship with India and I think that we are working back towards that.”
