Canada ‘bed fellow’ with those trying to challenge Indian sovereignty, says envoy Sanjay Kumar Verma

India’s envoy to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma in an interview broadcast on Sunday (Oct 20) slammed Canada for destroying the relationship between the two nations based on “politically motivated” intelligence rather than evidence.

Kumar, who has been linked to the murder of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar by Canada, insisted he was innocent and said he had nothing to do with Nijjar’s death, “Nothing at all. No evidence was presented.”

“(This is) politically motivated,” he alleged.

Denying any involvement of the Indian government, the outgoing envoy explicitly condemned Nijjar’s murder and said: “Any murder is wrong and bad. I do condemn and that is what I’ve said in many interviews. Let’s get to the bottom of the issue”.

When asked about India’s alleged lack of cooperation, Kumar said “not a shred of evidence has been shared with us.”

“Unfortunately, we have not got anything from any Canadian official, which can lead us to a better spot”.

The Indian envoy also addressed Canadian High Commissioner to India Cameron MacKay’s claim that his country has had “meetings at multiple levels” with India since 2023 and has tried to share information with New Delhi.

MacKay  had told CTV “There’s no doubt in my mind that we have shared more than sufficient information and evidence with the Indian side up to now at every level of the Canadian government and the Indian government.”

Verma alleged that the recent Canadian delegation visit to India was without an agenda.

He said that “proper visas were not there,” for the delegation that included RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn, National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) Nathalie Drouin and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison.

“Visas needs to be affixed for any delegation…For any government delegation to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all.”

“So therefore, it was largely technical,” he claimed.

Addressing RCMP allegations that Indian diplomats were leveraging their positions to coerce individuals and businesses to collect information on pro-Khalistanis on behalf of the Indian government, Sanjay Kumar Verma said all information was “overt”.

“I, as High Commissioner of India, have never done anything of that kind. That is one,” he said adding, “Second, my colleagues, do we want to know what pro-Khalistani elements in Canada are doing? Yes, we do. That’s my national interest.”

Watch | India-Canada Diplomatic Row: Indian Envoy Slams Trudeau Government

However, he stressed that there was “nothing covert. It’s all overt…So we read the newspapers, we read their statements, since we understand Punjabi. So we read their social media posts, and try to infer from there.”

Slamming the Canadian regime, Verma said it was a “bed fellow” with those trying to challenge Indian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

He alleged that “Khalistani extremists encouraged” in Canada and that Khalistani terrorists based in the country were not Indians. 

Verma also questioned why Canadian PM Justin Trudeau hadn’t gone to court with his allegations against India and slammed the leader for his lack of evidence.

“Gone are the days, when the western bloc would ask a developing country that you must do this, and they would run after them and do it. We are rule of country, wont you give evidence…,” he stated.

(With inputs from agencies)