TRENTON, Canada

The Canadian government has found no evidence to suggest that the Indian prime minister had knowledge of crimes committed by Indian agents in Canada, according to a senior government official.

Nathalie Drouin, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior security adviser, also said there was no evidence of a link to crimes committed by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar or the security adviser National Ajit Doval.

Drouin said in a statement Friday that any reports linking the three to illegal activities in Canada are “speculative and inaccurate.”

“On October 14, due to a significant and ongoing threat to public safety, the RCMP and its officials took the extraordinary step of publicizing accusations of serious criminal activity in Canada perpetrated by agents of the Indian government,” Drouin said in the release.

“The Government of Canada has not declared, and is not aware of, evidence linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to serious criminal activity in Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.

His statement followed a November 19 article in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper that suggested all three – Modi, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Ajit Doval – had knowledge of crimes and intimidation of Sikh separatists committed by Indian agents on Canadian soil. The source of the story was an anonymous senior national security official.

Indian media on Friday quoted Indian Foreign Minister Randhir Jaiswal’s spokesperson as calling the Globe article “ridiculous.”

“We do not normally comment on media reports. However, such ridiculous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” Jaiswal said according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper.

However, Trudeau and the national police have previously said there is credible evidence that Indian agents committed crimes in Canada, including the murder of Canadian-Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023.

India denies any wrongdoing.

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