In an interview to the network CTV News, which aired on Sunday, Sanjay Kumar Verma said, “If you look at the most recent incident to where there are some allegations put out in one of the newspapers against India, the US did provide us inputs. And we have already started following up on that.”
India is investigating the attempt on the life of the general counsel of the secessionist Sikhs for Justice Gurpatwant Pannun because the United States has presented “inputs” that are “legally presentable” though that’s not the case with the allegations related to the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada on June 18, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma has said.
In an interview to the network CTV News, which aired on Sunday, Verma said, “If you look at the most recent incident to where there are some allegations put out in one of the newspapers against India, the US did provide us inputs. And we have already started following up on that.”
When asked by host Vassy Kapelos whether Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor Jody Thomas had not provided actionable information to India when the she visited New Delhi for a total of nine days in August and September, Verma said, “Conversations could have allegations, conversations could have some facts of the case, but allegations and facts do not make it specific and relevant.”
Verma said the Indian Government required “specific and relevant” information “to go back to our legal authorities to seek permission to do investigation that we would have wanted to do. So until the time that those kinds of inputs are not there, in a country of rule of law, it will not be possible for us to move forward on the investigations.”
Referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and Nijjar’s murder, he said, “Whether we call it credible allegation, that’s the choice of word, but it’s an allegation. So from the Indian government’s side, I can assure you and your viewers that there was no government hand in the shooting of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”
However, he argued that Canada asking India to “cooperate” in the investigation implied that “even without an investigation being concluded, India was convicted.”
“Is that rule of law?” he asked, adding, “If you look at the typical criminal terminology, when someone asks us to cooperate, which means that you have already been convicted, and you better cooperate. So, we took it in a very different interpretation.”
He also said the “core issue” was that “some Canadian citizens are using Canadian soil to launch attacks on sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is against any international law.” He indicated such activity violated Article 2.4 of the United Nations that “”no country should allow its oil to be used to target other countries’ sovereignty and integrity, or territorial integrity.”
He also said that pro-Khalistan elements in Canada were considered terrorists, rather than as separatists, by India because “they are raising their funds in Canada, sending it across to the gangsters and gangs in India, who are doing illegal activities in India.”
Source: The Hindustan Times
