International: Recalled India's high commissioner to Canada Sanjay Verma said he was shocked when he was declared a 'person of interest' by Canada in the murder case of a Khalistani terrorist. In an interview with news agency PTI on Thursday, he said, "Declaring me 'person of interest' by Canada came as a shock, a "kind of back-stabbing".  He denied any involvement in the murder of a Canadian terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed in British Columbia last year even though the Canadian government has named him as a person of interest in his assassination." Did not betray emotion, not even a wrinkle of worry" on the face, he said recalling his appearance before Canadian authorities." 

Verma, who was recalled by New Delhi with five other Indian diplomats, in an earlier interview on CTV's Question Period, said that the allegations are politically motivated. The Indian government claimed it had recalled its diplomats but the Justin Trudeau-led administration said they were "expelled".

"Most unprofessional approach to bilateral relations, "this is the pits": Verma

"Nothing at all," Verma said when asked if he had any role in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed outside a cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023.

"Khalistani terrorists, extremists found refuge in Canada due to lenient Canadian legal system": Verma 

"I was on a visit to Toronto. I was sitting at the airport, and I received a message from an interlocutor in global affairs in Canada, which is the foreign ministry in Canada, to come to the foreign ministry in the evening. Unfortunately, I was not available, I was flying back on the 12th (October). Then on the 13th (October), they agreed to receive me in the morning," Verma revelled at what happened in the past few weeks.

"So, I and my deputy high commissioner, and after a bit of conversation they told me that I, along with five other diplomats and officials, are 'persons of interest' in the inquiry of killing of (Hardeep Singh) Nijjar. And, therefore, there was a request to waive my diplomatic immunity as well as the diplomatic immunity of my colleagues, so that we could be interrogated by RCMP which is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the investigating agency there. So, I took that as a message. We diplomats are messengers in any case, so we sent that message back home to advise us what to do," added Verma.

Trudeau levelled allegations against India

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public last week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home-- a claim New Delhi denied multiple times. They said top Indian officials were then passing that information to Indian organised crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.

India has rejected Canada's allegations

India has rejected the Canadian accusations as "absurd", and the External Affairs Ministry said it was expelling Canada's acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response. Verma said “not a shred of evidence has been shared with us” about the Canadian allegations. The RCMP has said attempts earlier this month to share evidence with Indian officials were unsuccessful. Verma said the RCMP had not applied for the proper visas to visit India. “A visa needs to be affixed,” he said. “For any government delegation to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all."

The Nijjar killing in Canada has soured India-Canada ties for more than a year, but Verma doesn't expect this will impact business relations between the two countries. “I don't see much impact on non-political bilateral relations,” he said.