The visit to repair Indo-Canadian ties may be shadowed by the Pannun, Nijjar killings cases as U.S. investigators file documents claiming ‘inextricable link’ between them
Ahead of a visit by Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand to India this month, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with her in New York on Monday (September 29, 2025). The visit is meant to help repair and “rebuild ties” between the two countries that were ruptured in 2023, but could be overshadowed by the upcoming trials into the Nijjar killing in Canada, and the Pannun assassination plot in the U.S.
A new 61-page court document indicates that American authorities will argue there is a strong, provable link between the two cases. India has denied targeting the men, who have been designated on the government’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act terror list, and are wanted in India.
“A good meeting with Foreign Minister Anita Anand this morning in New York. The appointment of High Commissioners is welcome as we rebuild ties,” Mr. Jaishankar posted after the meeting with Ms. Anand, referring to the simultaneous assignment of High Commissioners in Delhi and Ottawa in August. “[We] discussed further steps in that regard today. [I] look forward to welcoming FM Anand in India,” he added.
Ms. Anand, who was in former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet (November 2019-March 2025) before this role, will make her first visit to Delhi on October 13-14, sources told The Hindu, and will also be travelling to Singapore and China.
In an interview to a Canadian TV show on Sunday (September 28), Ms. Anand said she would discuss the “next steps in the diplomatic relationship” during her visit to India. She said meetings in Delhi in August between Canadian National Security and Intelligence Advisor Christine Drouin, and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs David Morrison, with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, were meant “to ensure [Canada and India] have a law enforcement dialogue proceeding”. When asked, she said the Indian government was now actively collaborating in the Nijjar investigation, but didn’t give details.
On Monday (September 29), the Canadian government designated the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, members of which are believed to have carried out the Nijjar killing, as a ”terrorist entity” responsible for intimidation and violence against “specific communities” in Canada. In 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is investigating the killing, said they also believed the Bishnoi gang was “connected to agents of the Government of India”. The Canadian authorities have charged four Indians for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a gurudwara in the Toronto area in June 2023, and their trial is expected to begin in 2026.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the authorities filed a new set of pre-trial evidentiary documents with the court of the Southern District of New York. These include a number of photographs and documents from emails and social media messages between former Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) intelligence officer Vikas Yadav, who is in custody in India, and businessman Nikhil Gupta, now in the U.S.’s custody, having been indicted in 2024 for planning a number of attacks on Khalistani activists wanted in India. The documents refer to Harjeet Nijjar and Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the Sikhs for Justice separatist group, and for the first time refer to evidence of plots on individuals in “Nepal and Pakistan” as well. It also contains documents pertaining to Mr. Yadav’s employment with the R&AW dating back to 2013.
The Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on the 61-page ‘Motion In Limine’ filed by U.S. attorney Jay Clayton on September 22, which was first reported by Bloomberg and The Wire.
The document online, which has been redacted at parts to keep the identities of a U.S. “confidential source” (CS) and an “undercover official” (UC) secret, outlines the evidence the U.S. prosecution will present to prove a larger conspiracy linking the cases in the U.S. and Canada.
“Put simply, the same evidence that proves Gupta, Yadav, and their co-conspirators planned to kill [Gurpatwant Pannun]… will also show that Gupta, Yadav, and their co-conspirators worked to kill other Sikh separatists in Canada, including Nijjar, and to kill the target in Nepal or Pakistan,” the document says.
The U.S. Department of Justice claims that Mr. Yadav planned the killings to suppress “Sikh separatist activities”. “This motive dovetails with proof that Yadav was an employee of the Government of India. And this motive helps explain why Gupta was concerned enough about, in his words, “political things”, that he instructed that the UC (DEA or Drug Enforcement Administration operative) should not kill the Victim (Pannun) around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the United States,” the US Attorney said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington on a state visit on June 22, 2023.
After the Nijjar killing on June 18, the documents say that Mr. Yadav sent Mr. Gupta a video of the killing by a WhatsApp message from India, confirming that he was involved in hiring the unidentified men responsible, and promised many more similar “jobs”.
“This evidence places the anticipated killing of the Victim in its true context: as one of a series of murders that the conspirators planned of Sikh dissidents like Nijjar. And because Gupta discussed the murder of Nijjar and the planned murder of others in Canada in the same communications where he discussed the murder of the Victim, the proof is inextricably intertwined,” it added.
The document also reveals that Mr. Gupta would be prosecuted for trafficking in drugs and arms, and international money laundering and credit card fraud, while Mr. Yadav offered to help smuggle the contraband out of India if the killing of Pannun was carried out successfully. He also shared several photographs of himself, including one wearing military camouflage and posing in front of an Indian Air Force plane, which the Department of Justice says it plans to use in the case.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand to visit India on October 13-14, meets External Affairs Minister Jaishankar in New York
The visit to repair Indo-Canadian ties may be shadowed by the Pannun, Nijjar killings cases as U.S. investigators file documents claiming ‘inextricable link’ between them
Ahead of a visit by Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand to India this month, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with her in New York on Monday (September 29, 2025). The visit is meant to help repair and “rebuild ties” between the two countries that were ruptured in 2023, but could be overshadowed by the upcoming trials into the Nijjar killing in Canada, and the Pannun assassination plot in the U.S.
A new 61-page court document indicates that American authorities will argue there is a strong, provable link between the two cases. India has denied targeting the men, who have been designated on the government’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act terror list, and are wanted in India.
“A good meeting with Foreign Minister Anita Anand this morning in New York. The appointment of High Commissioners is welcome as we rebuild ties,” Mr. Jaishankar posted after the meeting with Ms. Anand, referring to the simultaneous assignment of High Commissioners in Delhi and Ottawa in August. “[We] discussed further steps in that regard today. [I] look forward to welcoming FM Anand in India,” he added.
Ms. Anand, who was in former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet (November 2019-March 2025) before this role, will make her first visit to Delhi on October 13-14, sources told The Hindu, and will also be travelling to Singapore and China.
In an interview to a Canadian TV show on Sunday (September 28), Ms. Anand said she would discuss the “next steps in the diplomatic relationship” during her visit to India. She said meetings in Delhi in August between Canadian National Security and Intelligence Advisor Christine Drouin, and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs David Morrison, with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, were meant “to ensure [Canada and India] have a law enforcement dialogue proceeding”. When asked, she said the Indian government was now actively collaborating in the Nijjar investigation, but didn’t give details.
On Monday (September 29), the Canadian government designated the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, members of which are believed to have carried out the Nijjar killing, as a ”terrorist entity” responsible for intimidation and violence against “specific communities” in Canada. In 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is investigating the killing, said they also believed the Bishnoi gang was “connected to agents of the Government of India”. The Canadian authorities have charged four Indians for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a gurudwara in the Toronto area in June 2023, and their trial is expected to begin in 2026.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the authorities filed a new set of pre-trial evidentiary documents with the court of the Southern District of New York. These include a number of photographs and documents from emails and social media messages between former Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) intelligence officer Vikas Yadav, who is in custody in India, and businessman Nikhil Gupta, now in the U.S.’s custody, having been indicted in 2024 for planning a number of attacks on Khalistani activists wanted in India. The documents refer to Harjeet Nijjar and Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the Sikhs for Justice separatist group, and for the first time refer to evidence of plots on individuals in “Nepal and Pakistan” as well. It also contains documents pertaining to Mr. Yadav’s employment with the R&AW dating back to 2013.
The Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on the 61-page ‘Motion In Limine’ filed by U.S. attorney Jay Clayton on September 22, which was first reported by Bloomberg and The Wire.
The document online, which has been redacted at parts to keep the identities of a U.S. “confidential source” (CS) and an “undercover official” (UC) secret, outlines the evidence the U.S. prosecution will present to prove a larger conspiracy linking the cases in the U.S. and Canada.
“Put simply, the same evidence that proves Gupta, Yadav, and their co-conspirators planned to kill [Gurpatwant Pannun]… will also show that Gupta, Yadav, and their co-conspirators worked to kill other Sikh separatists in Canada, including Nijjar, and to kill the target in Nepal or Pakistan,” the document says.
The U.S. Department of Justice claims that Mr. Yadav planned the killings to suppress “Sikh separatist activities”. “This motive dovetails with proof that Yadav was an employee of the Government of India. And this motive helps explain why Gupta was concerned enough about, in his words, “political things”, that he instructed that the UC (DEA or Drug Enforcement Administration operative) should not kill the Victim (Pannun) around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the United States,” the US Attorney said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington on a state visit on June 22, 2023.
After the Nijjar killing on June 18, the documents say that Mr. Yadav sent Mr. Gupta a video of the killing by a WhatsApp message from India, confirming that he was involved in hiring the unidentified men responsible, and promised many more similar “jobs”.
“This evidence places the anticipated killing of the Victim in its true context: as one of a series of murders that the conspirators planned of Sikh dissidents like Nijjar. And because Gupta discussed the murder of Nijjar and the planned murder of others in Canada in the same communications where he discussed the murder of the Victim, the proof is inextricably intertwined,” it added.
The document also reveals that Mr. Gupta would be prosecuted for trafficking in drugs and arms, and international money laundering and credit card fraud, while Mr. Yadav offered to help smuggle the contraband out of India if the killing of Pannun was carried out successfully. He also shared several photographs of himself, including one wearing military camouflage and posing in front of an Indian Air Force plane, which the Department of Justice says it plans to use in the case.
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