'What We Have Been Saying', Trudeau Says After US Indict Indian Man For Pannun Assassination Plot
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that India needs to take charge of the attempted assassination of Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun "seriously" and cooperate in the investigations.
"The news coming out of the US further underscores what we've been talking about from the very beginning, which is... India needs to take this seriously," Trudeau said on Wednesday.
What Trudeau said?
"The Indian government needs to work with us to ensure that we're getting to the bottom of this. This is not something that anyone can take lightly," he added.
Trudeau further said that Canadian authorities have been working closely with their American counterparts since August on allegations about the Indian government's involvement in Nijjar's killing on June 18 in British Columbia province.
How India reacted
Reacting to Trudeau's statement, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that the main issue with Ottawa has been that of activities of anti-India elements in that country.
"In so far as Canada is concerned, we have said that they have consistently given space to anti-India extremists and violence, and that is actually the heart of the issue. Our diplomatic representatives in Canada have borne the brunt of this," Bagchi said at a MEA briefing.
"We expect the government of Canada to live up to its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We have also seen interference by Canadian diplomats in our internal affairs," he said. It is obviously unacceptable, Bagchi added.
Who is Nikhil Gupta, the Indian national indicted in US?
The development came after US prosecutors on Wednesday announced murder-for-hire charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta for involvement in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen allegedly on behalf of an Indian government employee.
52-year-old Gupta, who lives in India, was arrested in June by authorities in the Czech Republic under US extradition orders.
According to the Justice Department, Gupta had made a deal with a person for $100,000 to murder several targets in the US.
But the person whom Gupta assumed was a hitman was, in reality, an undercover US agent.
The Justice Department said that Gupta acted on behalf of a senior Indian government official, only identified as CC-1 in the indictment document.
Earlier, following the revelation by the Financial Times that the US had foiled an assassination plot targetting Pannun, the Indian government had announced the formation of a probe team to investigate allegations.
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