By Mike Hager and Greg Mercer
Canadian national-security officials were presented with evidence that Indian consular staff operating in Vancouver supplied information to assist in the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, two sources told The Globe and Mail.
One of the Indian officials worked as a visa officer in the consulate, using his position to gather information about Mr. Nijjar from members of the Indian diaspora in Surrey, B.C., said the sources, one of whom is in law enforcement and one in national security.
Authorities believe the man, Kanwaljit Singh, was also an intelligence officer with India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, the law-enforcement source said. The national-security source didn’t identify Mr. Singh by name but confirmed that CSIS was monitoring an undercover RAW agent posted to the consulate who was also working as a visa officer.
Mr. Singh worked with Manish, a career diplomat who goes by one name and was Vancouver’s consul-general at the time, both sources said.
The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to share details of the investigation. Their information is based on the RCMP’s investigation and intelligence from Canada’s spy service and its allies in the United States and Britain.
While Ottawa has accused agents of India of being involved in the assassination, the identities of consular officials and their alleged roles in the Nijjar plot have never been publicly disclosed. The federal government expelled six diplomats in October, 2024, but only publicly named then-high commissioner Sanjay Verma.
Mr. Singh had previously been on a Canadian government list of accredited diplomats, The Canadian Press reported at the time, and his name was removed after the expulsions.
This story was originally published in theglobeandmail.com. Read the full story here.
