Justin Trudeau-led Canadian government is yet to furnish the death certificate of Sikh Separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar despite several requests by the National Investigation Agency, according to the media reports. Ottawa had publicly alleged the involvement of Indian government officials in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian-origin citizen of Canada who was killed in Surrey in June last year. Nijjar was accused in nine cases being investigated by NIA.
Notably, the NIA was asked by Canada to give a reason for seeking Nijjar’s death certificate. The NIA had reached out to Canadian authorities for the documents to fulfil the legal requirement of updating the courts in India in view of the cases lying pending against him.
However, according to the media reports, citing NIA sources, Canada posed some counter-queries, including why the death certificate of its citizen should be sought by India. It is to be noted that Nijjar’s killing had sparked a diplomatic row between Indian and Canada with the latter alleging the role of Indian agencies, an allegation strongly dismiised by New Delhi.
Tensions between the two countries escalated further following Canada named senior Indian diplomats as persons of interest in the Nijjar murder investigation, and India retaliated by recalling those diplomats from the country. The central investigative agency is also yet to get success in securing an Interpol red-corner notice against another Sikh Separatist preacher and a designated terrorist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds a US citizenship.
The NIA is investigating six cases of Sikh Separatist terror against Pannun and has attached three of his properties across Chandigarh, Amritsar and Pathankot so far on grounds of being proceeds of terrorism. There was an attempt on Pannun’s life in the US in New York in June 2023, prompting the US to claim the involvement of an Indian official.
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