Written by: Aidan Jonah

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of being behind the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Nijjar, in British Columbia, he did it without evidence or a real case to back it up. Canadians were just supposed to take the word of CSIS, which Trudeau said had ‘credible evidence’ backing up its claim. Given the numerous misdeeds of CSIS, that meant much suspicion about the claim.

Just today, Trudeau said the accusation was made “to ‘put a chill‘ on India amid concerns in the Sikh community over safety” and “intended as an extra "‘level of deterrence’ to keep Canadians safer.”

India struck back hard as Trudeau floundered around, not making a case for the claim: the “station chief for Canada’s intelligence agency” in India was expelled, after the Canadian station chief of India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing was expelled by Canada around the time of Trudeau’s claim. Then, 41 Canadian diplomats had to be withdrawn from India under threat of removal of diplomatic immunity.

The best logic for this floundering could be the desperate desire to not jeopardize the long-term, even if delayed, push for a Canada-India Free Trade Agreement and overall Canada-India relations in view of India’s importance to the Canadian ‘Indo-Pacific’ Strategy posted against China.

Yet floundering is floundering regardless of the ‘logic’ behind it.

The principle of innocence until proven guilty applies as always, yet what’s shifted the conversation on Nijjar’s killing is, get this, laying out a case about who killed Nijjar on whose orders, and most of all, in charging individuals, declaring the state’s willingness to defend its allegations in court. Intelligence itself is not evidence. In court, actual evidence will be required for the US Department of Justice to seek the prosecution of named and unnamed individuals.

But of course, even laying out charges and therefore declaring the willingness to defend its claims in court with its best evidence, doesn’t automatically mean the charged individuals are guilty. As William Dere explained for The Canada Files in 2022, Qing Quentin Huang, a naval engineer and former subcontractor to the Canadian frigate program, was charged with stealing trade secrets for China, yet eight years later the case against him was dropped in December 2021 as CSIS refused to disclose evidence against him.

But of course, the US DOJ’s indictments do justify a sharp conversation about Nijjar’s killing, and a deep look into if India’s government is behind Nijjar killing.

The US DOJ indictment, Nijjar allegedly in the crosshairs

The indictment itself, not a conviction it must be emphasized, can be summarized as such: A Sikh separatist activist was allegedly targeted for an assassination coordinated by an Indian “’Senior Field Officer’ with responsibilities in ‘Security Management’ and ‘Intelligence’ (CC-1), to be managed by an Indian national – Nikhil Gupta, who allegedly sought to hire a hitman that was actually an undercover US law enforcement agent, to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice.

Nijjar comes in multiple times during the indictment. On page three, it notes that Hardeep Nijjar was killed by gunmen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia on June 18, and on the same day, it alleges that the Indian “Senior Field Officer” sent Gupta “a video clip that showed Nijjar's bloody body slumped in his vehicle”. The indictment says Gupta “replied that he wished he had personally conducted the killing and asked CC-1 for permission to ‘go to the field.’"

An hour later “CC-1 sent GUPTA the street address of the Victim's residence in New York City”. A day later, Gupta told the undercover law enforcement agency officer who he’d hired in the alleged assassination plot targeting Pannun that “Nijjar ‘was also the target’” and that there was “now no need to wait”.

An eye-catching section of the indictment is thus:

“Soon after, on or about June 19, 2023, GUPTA spoke with the UC by audio call, and GUPTA told the UC that Nijjar "was also the target" but that Nijjar was "#4, #3" on the list, and "not to worry [because] we have so many targets, we have so many targets. But the good news is this, the good news is this: now no need to wait."

Gupta would allegedly state that the killing of Nijjar was “this job… in Canada”, which was done by “some other guy.”

On June 20, Gupta allegedly stated that “before the ‘29th [of June] we have to finish four jobs,’ i. e., the Victim [Pannun] and, after that, ‘three in Canada.’"

If the allegations hold up in court, they are damning. While the Indian government has denied they were being the killing of Nijjar, if the allegations go through, at minimum a rogue Indian government agency employee ordered one or more assassinations abroad. Now, as CNN notes, India “has set up a high-level committee to investigate the accusations in the US indictment”, which would almost certainly include Nijjar’s killing.

While CSIS’ director David Vigneault is firmly stating India is behind Nijjar’s killing and hopes that charges can be filed, the US indictment provides much more reason to consider this possibility, and it will have to be seen if Canadian law enforcement follows in filing charges after an investigation. Desires to use India against China in its ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ should not hold back any charges that may be filed against those involved in Nijjar’s killing.

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Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi "journalist" Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the "Uyghur genocide" vote in parliament to pass in February 2021. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

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