New Delhi: Canada on Friday stated that it is not aware of any evidence linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar or national security adviser Ajit Doval to any criminal activity on its soil, just days after a Canadian media report cited sources to claim that Modi knew beforehand of the plot to kill pro-Khalistan extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India had earlier this week described the media report as “ludicrous”. Nijjar was gunned down in Canada in June last year.
"The government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of evidence, linking Modi, Jaishankar or Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada,” a statement from the national security and intelligence adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister Nathalie G. Drouin was quoted by media reports as saying, who said, "Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”
India had late on Wednesday night said: “We do not normally comment on media reports. However, such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. Smear campaigns like this only further damage our already strained ties.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had alleged in September last year that India was involved in the killing of Nijjar, an allegation which New Delhi dismissed as "absurd".
Last month, Canada had said that it had expelled six Indian diplomats, including the Indian high commissioner, while New Delhi had swiftly retaliated by expelling the same number of Canadian diplomats, including the Canadian acting high commissioner and deputy high commissioner. New Delhi had said it had first recalled its six “targeted” diplomats soon after it received a communication from the Canadian government that “suggested that the Indian high commissioner in Ottawa and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country”, a reference to the matter of the probe into Nijjar’s killing.
Canada's deputy foreign affairs minister David Morrison was quoted by media and news agency reports last month as telling Canadian Parliament members of the national security committee that Shah had ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada.
In response, New Delhi had said, “We had summoned the representative of the Canadian high commission. A diplomatic note was handed over in reference to the proceedings of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in Ottawa on October 29. It was conveyed that the government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union home minister before the committee by Morrison."
New Delhi said that the revelation that Canadian officials deliberately leak unfounded insinuations to the international media as part of a conscious strategy to discredit India and influence other nations only confirms the view government of India has long held about the current Canadian government's political agenda and behavioural pattern. Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties.