Canada rejects media report linking PM Modi, EAM, NSA to criminal activities

The Canadian government has dismissed a media report linking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to criminal activities in Canada, calling it “speculative and inaccurate”. The report also linked him to the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser Nathalie G Drouin denied the report a day after India strongly condemned it as a “smear campaign”, PTI reported.

Citing an unnamed senior national security official, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday that Canadian security agencies believed Prime Minister Modi knew about Nijjar’s killing and other violent plots. Canadian and US intelligence linked the killings to Home Minister Amit Shah and that Ajit Doval and S Jaishankar were also in the know, the official added.

In a statement released by the Privy Council Office, Drouin said: “On October 14, due to a significant and ongoing threat to public safety, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and officials took the extraordinary step of making public allegations of activity serious crime in Canada. committed by agents of the Government of India”.

However, he added: “The Government of Canada has not stated nor is it aware of the evidence linking PM Modi, Minister Jaishankar or NSA Doval to serious criminal activity in Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.”

In New Delhi on Wednesday, referring to The Globe and Mail’s report, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said such “ridiculous statements” should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve and “campaigns of slander like this only further damages our already strained ties.”

India-Canada ties remain deeply strained over Canada’s alleged support for Khalistani separatists and its allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of Nijjar, who was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, last June.