NEW DELHI: Ottawa has refused to entertain the National Investigation Agency’s request for the death certificate of pro-Khalistan operative Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian-origin citizen of Canada who was killed there in June last year. Nijjar was accused in nine cases being investigated by NIA.
NIA had approached Canada for Nijjar’s death certificate to fulfil the legal requirement of updating the courts here in view of the cases that were pending against him. However, as per NIA sources, the Canadian authorities posed some counter-queries, including why the death certificate of its citizen should be sought by India. “After that, they refused to share his death certificate,” said an officer.
Nijjar’s murder had triggered a diplomatic row with the Canadian govt alleging the role of Indian agencies, a charge promptly and stoutly denied by New Delhi. The row had recently escalated with Canada naming senior Indian diplomats as “persons of interest” in the Nijjar murder investigation, and India retaliating by withdrawing those diplomats from the country.
NIA is also yet to succeed in securing an Interpol red-corner notice against another pro-Khalistan rabble rouser and designated terrorist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is a US citizen. NIA is investigating six cases of Khalistani terror against Pannun and has attached three of his properties — across Chandigarh, Amritsar and Pathankot — so far on grounds of being proceeds of terrorism. Interestingly, 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.
Last week, an unsealed indictment showed that the US had charged Vikash Yadav, described as a former officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service, with directing the plot against the Sikh separatist.
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