Ex-Envoy Sanjay Verma "Very Glad" as RCMP Retracts India Interference Claims

Sanjay Kumar Verma was recalled as Ambassador by India in October 2024 in the wake of a sharp deterioration in ties with Canada over former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations against India over the killing in 2023 of NIA-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Sanjay Verma told ANI in an interview that it is not India's policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country.

India and Canada ties have seen a sharp upswing under the leadership of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who visited India from February 27 to March 2.

Days after Carney's India visit, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner said in an interview that they are not seeing any connection with any foreign entity, based on the criminal information.

Sanjay Verma said his remarks as Ambassador at that time were unfortunately not accepted by the Trudeau government.

"He (RCMP Commissioner) has kept it in two different buckets. One bucket is the Khalistan terrorist who was killed there. And another bucket is transnational repression and transnational crimes. So these are two buckets. So when you look at the first bucket, so their court case is already on. Charges have been filed against four Indian nationals. These four Indian nationals went to Canada as international students, got to know what happened in the society and they became whatever they have been alleged to have become, and their trial is on, Verma told ANI.

"The second bucket is India's overall engagement in Canada, and when I was still serving in Ottawa, a lot of noise was there on India's role in transnational repression as well as transnational crimes in Canada. I always said it is not India's policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country. Unfortunately, this was not accepted by the regime of that particular point of time. But I'm very glad to see the statement which came out... I hope that this augurs well with the future relationship of India and Canada," he added.

India had in October 2024 strongly reacted to the diplomatic communication from Canada over 'person of interest' allegations against Verma and rejected them.

"We have received a diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are 'persons of interest' in a matter related to an investigation in that country. The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics," MEA statement had said.

The statement said that since Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian Government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests.

The strongly-worded statement said this leaves little doubt that, on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.

It accused Trudeau of hostility to India and said it has been "long been in evidence". It also accused the Trudeau government of pandering to the "anti-India separatist agenda" for its narrow political gains.

The statement had said that aspersions cast on Sanjay Kumar Verma "are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt."

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said in interview with CTV, earlier this month that they are not seeing any connection right now with any foreign entity, based on the criminal information.

"Well, what I quoted in 2024 was based on the criminal investigation that we had at the time. The government official who made that quote, I'm not quite sure who briefed him. What I'm saying is that that particular file at that time, yes, I did say you had agents or proxies from the government. But what we're seeing right now in transnational repression...the dots don't always connect to a foreign entity. We work closely with law enforcement from across the country to make sure that it's a coordinated approach," he said.

"But it's important for people to report it. If it's not reported, there's little we can do. And I can appreciate sometimes that people are fearful of reporting it. But what I encourage people, if they see something, say something. We're not seeing any connection right now with any foreign entity, based on the criminal information, the investigation that we have presently. What we have in our holdings is we have people that are intimidating people, harassing people, but connecting the dots to a foreign entity. we don't have that," he added.

India and Canada have worked consistently over the recent months to normalise and strengthen bilateral ties, culminating in Carney's visit to India.

- ANI