The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday that India had requested Canada to arrest members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang but it didn’t act on New Delhi’s âcore concernsâ. The MEA also rejected “false imputations against our diplomats” made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We had shared some requests with the Canadian side for the arrest of those from Lawrence Bishnoiâs gang. They havenât taken any action on our core concerns. There is a political motive also behind this,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said today.
Acknowledging that he had no âhard evidentiary proofâ and had only intelligence when Canada alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year, Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said there were âclear indicationsâ that India had violated Canadian sovereignty.
Referring to Trudeau’s admission, the MEA reiterated that Canada hasn’t shared a shred of evidence with New Delhi proving Indian agents’ involvement in the murder.
“We have made our position very clear on this particular matter. You would have seen that several press releases have been issued in the last two days putting out our position, and we are very clear that since September of 2023, the Canadian government has not shared any shred of information with us. Yesterday, again, after the public inquiry, and public hearing again, issued a statement saying that Canada has given serious allegations but has so far not given any evidence to back it up…as far as the allegations are concerned, PM Trudeau’s own admission, yesterday would decade the value as regards are stands…we reject false imputations against our diplomats,” said Jaiswal.
Justin Trudeau, testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference, claimed on Wednesday that Indian diplomats had been collecting information on Canadians who are in disagreement with the Narendra Modi government and passing it to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The Bishnoi gang is notorious in India because of several high-profile murders.
