Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who were not aligned with sentiments of the Narendra Modi-led government in India, and were passing it on to the Indian government and Lawrence Bishnoi gang, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has alleged.

Trudeau was testifying before Canada’s foreign interference inquiry when he made the allegations on Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has named the Bishnoi gang as a crime entity used to target South Asian diaspora and Sikh separatists.

However, Trudeu, during the same testimony, said that Canada did not hand over any ‘hard proof’ linking India to Sikh separatist Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil.

India, yet to comment on the recent development of diplomats  passing on information to government and Bishnoi gang, reacted strongly to Trudeau’s confession of not having the ‘hard proof’.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said what it has heard only “confirms” New Delhi's consistent stand that Canada has “presented us no evidence” in support of the serious allegations Ottawa chose to level against India and Indian diplomats. 

The MEA also held Trudeau’s ‘cavalier behaviour’ responsible for damaging India-Canada relations.

“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in an official statement on Wednesday night in response to Trudeau’s comment on Wednesday.

“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone,” he added.

The ties between India and Canada soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament last year that he has ‘credible allegations’ of India’s hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey in June last year.

The recent diplomatic row erupted when Canada labelled India’s High Commissioner and other diplomats as ‘persons of interest’ in the investigation of Nijjar’s death.

India had on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada’s Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the ‘baseless targeting’ of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)