The United States has shared “legally presentable” inputs with India on the alleged assassination plot of Khalistani extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, while Canada merely levelled allegations and provided nothing specific in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s June killing, Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma has said.
Speaking to CTV News, Verma also clarified that the US inputs on Pannun’s killing plot are linked to “people in India” and not the “Government of India”.
Last week, UK daily Financial Times reported that US authorities thwarted a plot to kill Khalistan extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the founder of proscribed Sikhs for Justice outfit and warned New Delhi “over concerns it was involved in the plot.”
“The investigation in case of the U.S. as far as I know and understand … is at a much (more) advanced stage, and therefore, I presume, that there would be better information shared with India,” he said.
However, Verma clarified that this was not the case with Canada as the country didn’t share any specific inputs on their allegations of Indian government link to the murder of Nijjar.
According to the CTV report, Verma said that India is refusing to cooperate with Canada on Nijjar killing because it has a “very different interpretation” of what that entails, including finding the word “cooperate” in this instance to be “humiliating” in that it presumes guilt.
“But we always said that if there is anything specific and relevant, and communicated to us, we will look into it,” he said. “And that had been said from day one.”
The High Commissioner reiterated India’s stand and said that New Delhi was “absolutely and decidedly” not involved in the Nijjar killing, calling Ottawa’s allegations “motivated and absurd.”