New Delhi: After Arshdeep Singh Gill, a man whom the Union government has designated a terrorist and accused of being close to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was reportedly arrested in Canada, the external affairs ministry has said it will seek his extradition to India.
“In view of the recent arrest, our agencies will be following up on an extradition request,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday (November 14).
Referring to Gill’s alias Arsh Dalla, Jaiswal added: “Given Arsh Dalla’s criminal record in India and his involvement in similar illegal activities in Canada, it is expected that he will be extradited or deported to face justice in India.”
Canadian news outlet CTV News said an investigation it conducted showed that 28-year-old Gill was one of two men arrested late last month by police in Ontario’s Halton and charged with discharging a firearm with intent.
Jaiswal said on Thursday that the MEA “[understood] that the Ontario Court has listed the case for hearing”.
In January last year, the Union home ministry designated Gill a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, alleging his involvement in murder, extortion, financing terror, smuggling drugs and weapons, and disturbing communal harmony.
The number of cases against him exceeds 50, the MEA has said.
Gill was also “very close to” Nijjar – a man also proscribed as a terrorist by the government – and ran terror modules on Nijjar’s behalf, the home ministry had alleged while designating him a terrorist.
Nijjar, who headed the pro-Khalistan outfits Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and the Canadian wing of the Sikhs for Justice group, was shot dead in June last year by men Ottawa has claimed were agents of the Indian government.
The allegations, which India has vigorously denied, sent diplomatic relations between the two countries into a downward spiral.
According to the MEA – which described Gill as the “de facto” chief of the KTF – the Union government asked Ottawa to provisionally arrest Gill but had its request denied, following which it provided Canada with additional information.
It also requested Canada under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to verify Gill’s “suspected residential address, his financial transactions to India, moveable/immovable properties, details of mobile numbers etc,” which it said it provided Canadian authorities with in January 2023.
“In December 2023, the Department of Justice of Canada sought additional information on the case. A reply to these queries was sent in March this year,” Jaiswal said.
On Sunday, the Punjab police announced it had arrested two alleged associates of Gill’s near Chandigarh, adding to accuse them of killing a man in Madhya Pradesh on Gill’s directions.
The Globe and Mail cited Nijjar’s lawyer and friends as disputing the alleged link between him and Gill, and reported that Gill said in an April interview to a Punjabi journalist that he did not support the Khalistani militancy but had killed a Hindu leader for alleged desecration.
