India rejects Canadian PM’s admission that there is no evidence, saying responsibility for damage lies solely with Trudeau – India TV

New Delhi: As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified before a commission of inquiry, the State Department said Thursday that what it has heard only “confirms” New Delhi’s consistent position that Canada has “provided us with no evidence” to support the serious allegations that Ottawa has chosen. to take on India and Indian diplomats.

Trudeau acknowledged on Wednesday that he only had intelligence and not “hard evidence” when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year. MEA issued a statement in the early hours of Thursday in response to media questions about Trudeau’s statement, some details of which emerged in media reports.

Canada has not given us any evidence: India

“What we heard today only confirms what we have consistently said all along: Canada has not provided us with any evidence to support the serious allegations it has made against India and Indian diplomats,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal . a statement.

The ministry further said, “The responsibility for the damage this arrogant behavior has caused to India-Canada relations lies solely with Prime Minister Trudeau.”

Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal election processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau alleged that the Indian diplomats collected information about Canadians who disagreed with Narendra Modi’s government and passed it on to the highest levels of the Indian government and criminal organizations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

India rejects Canada’s allegations

India has strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents to criminal gangs in Canada with official sources in New Delhi, even saying that Ottawa’s claim that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case was simply untrue. Sources in New Delhi also rejected Trudeau’s previous allegations that India engaged in activities including conducting covert operations targeting Canadian nationals in his country.

India earlier on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and also announced it would withdraw its high commissioner from Canada after rejecting Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to an investigation into Nijjar’s killing. The escalation of diplomatic conflict between India and Canada marks a major deterioration in the already frosty relations between the two countries.

Relations between the two countries came under serious strain following Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s murder.

New Delhi dismissed Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd”.

India has maintained that the main issue between the two countries is Canada’s giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating with impunity from Canadian soil. Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.

(With input from the agency)

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