Toronto: A confidential report by Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has further escalated the ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada.
According to a report published by Global News, the RCMP has alleged that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is operating his criminal network from inside Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail. The report makes the explosive claim that the Bishnoi gang is targeting Sikh separatists and other critics in Canada “at the behest of the Indian government”.
The RCMP report states that although Bishnoi has been lodged in jail since 2015, he continues to orchestrate criminal activities in Canada, including extortion, drug trafficking and contract killings. It further claims that Bishnoi, along with his associate Goldy Brar (Satinderjit Singh), is directing a gang with around 700 members spread across India, North America and Europe.
Canadian police have alleged that the gang was involved in the killings of Sikh leaders such as Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Sukhdeep Singh.
The Indian government has strongly rejected all these allegations, terming them “baseless and politically motivated”. Amid the escalating row, India has already recalled six of its diplomats and ordered Canadian diplomats to leave the country.
So far, neither the Gujarat prison department nor the Indian High Commission has issued an official response to the latest RCMP report.
The revelations have surfaced at a time when hopes had been raised about the resumption of trade talks between the two countries. However, the RCMP report has once again deepened the strain in bilateral ties. It also claims that Canadian investigative agencies possess confidential intelligence allegedly linking senior Indian officials to these criminal activities.
