Nearly three years after former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged a possible connection between Indian government agents and the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said its investigation has uncovered no evidence that Indian officials were involved in or charged in the case.
The clarification followed the unsealing of a US indictment that identifies jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his close associate Goldy Brar as the alleged architects of Nijjar's 2023 assassination, without making any allegations against the Indian government.
Speaking during a media briefing after a joint US-Canada law enforcement operation, RCMP officials said investigators had not found evidence linking Indian officials to the murder or naming them as accused in the investigation, even as authorities announced arrests and indictments targeting multiple organised crime syndicates.
The statement came alongside the announcement of Operation Hard Ball, a coordinated investigation conducted with the FBI that targeted criminal networks allegedly led by Lawrence Bishnoi, Ravinder Dhanda and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria. According to Canadian police, the groups were involved in extortion, drug trafficking, kidnappings and other violent crimes, including the killing of Nijjar.
The announcement marks a significant development nearly three years after Trudeau informed Canada's Parliament that there were “credible allegations" connecting agents of the Indian government to Nijjar's murder, sparking a major diplomatic dispute with New Delhi.
India consistently rejected those allegations, describing them as “absurd" and repeatedly urging Ottawa to produce evidence to substantiate its claims.
The dispute led to a series of retaliatory diplomatic actions by both countries, including the expulsion of senior diplomats, a reduction in diplomatic staff, the temporary suspension of visa services for Canadian citizens, the freezing of trade negotiations and repeated accusations involving alleged interference and extremism. Relations remained strained for almost two years before cautious efforts to rebuild ties began under Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
According to US prosecutors, Bishnoi orchestrated the assassination from prison in India by using smuggled mobile phones, while Goldy Brar allegedly coordinated the operation from North America.
The indictment states that Bishnoi supplied photographs and addresses of Nijjar to facilitate the assassination, which was carried out outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023.
The charges are part of a wider prosecution involving 37 defendants allegedly associated with three Indian-origin organised crime syndicates accused of murder, extortion, narcotics trafficking and weapons smuggling across Canada, the United States and several other countries.
A separate seven-count indictment centres on another transnational criminal organisation allegedly established by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, a former associate of Bishnoi who later became his rival and is also imprisoned in India. Prosecutors allege the Bhagwanpuria network, believed to have more than 1,000 associates worldwide, engaged in large-scale narcotics trafficking, weapons dealing and murder-for-hire operations. The indictment further claims the organisation generated fraudulent information to manipulate law enforcement processes overseas, using false allegations to facilitate extortion schemes targeting rivals and their families in locations ranging from Punjab to Ohio.
The third indictment focuses on an alleged cross-border drug trafficking network led by Vancouver-based Ravinder Singh Dhanda. Prosecutors accuse the organisation of smuggling hundreds of kilograms of high-purity cocaine and methamphetamine across the international border every week by coordinating transport with major North American cartels. The narcotics were allegedly moved from Southern California into Canada using long-haul semi-trucks and commercial agricultural vehicles. As part of the coordinated international raids, law enforcement teams searched multiple properties in Canada, including a residence belonging to one of Dhanda's relatives on Cliff Avenue.
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