Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Court documents show Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karan Brar are each facing one count first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in Nijjar’s death.
Nijjar, 45, was gunned down outside his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., on June 18, 2023.
The indictments Friday allege the conspiracy unfolded in both Surrey and Edmonton between May 1, 2023 and the day of Nijjar’s killing.
The B.C. RCMP and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team are scheduled to provide an update on the case at 12:30 p.m. PT Friday.
Nijjar’s killing sparked a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that intelligence services were investigating information about a potential link between India’s government and the killing.
Canada’s public safety minister declined to confirm the Indian government connection Friday, telling reporters on Parliament Hill that such questions are best addressed by the RCMP.
“I have full confidence in the security apparatus of the government of Canada and the work of the RCMP, and the work that the (Canadian) Security Intelligence Service does,” Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said.
“I think the police operation that you see ongoing today confirms that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously. But questions with respect to particular links or non-links are properly put to the RCMP,” he added.
Nijjar was the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara where he was shot dead in broad daylight by masked gunmen.
As a vocal supporter of the Khalistan movement, which advocates for a separate Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab province, he was a wanted man in India, where authorities labelled him a terrorist in 2020.
At the time of his death, he was organizing an unofficial referendum about Khalistan among the Sikh diaspora in B.C. with the organization Sikhs For Justice.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
With files from CTV News Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter Rachel Aiello and The Canadian Press