A fourth Indian national living in Canada has been charged for alleged involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who was gunned down outside a B.C. temple last June.
Amandeep Singh, 22, was already in the custody of Peel Regional Police on unrelated firearms charges before any connection was alleged between him and Nijjar’s murder.
After further questioning by the Ontario Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, the agency contacted the B.C. Prosecution Service, which police say gave “sufficient information” to charge Singh with “first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”
According to police, Singh lived in Brampton, Ont. and Surrey, B.C.
No further details on the arrest have been made public yet however, as the investigation and court processes remain ongoing.
Singh’s arrest marks the fourth arrest of an Indian national living in connection to Nijjar’s killing, with three others arrested in Edmonton earlier this month.
Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh were all arrested and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Protesters from the Surrey temple where Nijjar was killed gathered outside Surrey’s provincial court house last Tuesday as the three men made their first court appearance. The Canadian government has suggested the Indian government is complicit in Nijjar’s assassination.
However, Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar accused Ottawa of welcoming in criminals from India, in response to the RCMP arrests. He also called Canada the primary driver of what he described to be a violent movement of Sikhs seeking to carve their own country within India.
Sikh separatists refer to this desired state as Khalistan.
“It’s not so much a problem in the U.S.; our biggest problem right now is in Canada,” said Jaishankar at a forum for intellectuals in Bhubaneswar, India on Saturday.
Nijjar was an outspoken Khalistani activist and his murder launched a major diplomatic fallout between Canada and India.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of orchestrating Nijjar’s assassination, further escalating tensions between the two nations.
Domestic protests against the Indian government were spurred by the killing as well as investigations into murders of Sikh activists involving the U.S. authorities.
Additionally, the arrests sparked criticism of Canada’s international student visa program after a 2019 video of an India-based immigration consultancy showed Brar saying his “study visa has arrived” along with a photo of the suspect holding what appeared to be a study permit.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it was unable to comment on active investigations or individual cases when asked about Brar’s immigration status.