Canada’s security agencies allege that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the loop about the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and plans to eliminate other prominent separatists, leading Canadian daily The Globe and Mail said Wednesday.

The report comes even though Indian officials have strenuously denied any complicity in Nijjar’s murder.

The Canadians are, in fact, convinced that the plot was led by Union home minister Amit Shah and that Modi, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval were all informed about it, an unnamed Canadian national security official told the newspaper.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and others pose for a group photo during the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024. (AP/PTI)

This is the first time an accusation has been made that Modi, Jaishankar, and Doval knew about the attempt to kill Nijjar. But Canada’s security agencies claim discussions must have taken place about it at the very topmost levels of government.

“The official said the (Canadian) assessment is that it would be unthinkable that three senior political figures in India would not have discussed the targeted killings with Mr. Modi before proceeding,” according to the Canadian newspaper.

However, experts in India point out that knowledge about intelligence operations is usually shared only on what is called “a need-to-know basis.”

The official said that both US and Canadian intelligence agencies were convinced that the killing plots were masterminded and led by Shah.

Jaishankar has never been mentioned before as being aware of the plots.

The report quoting the national security official came even as Modi was photographed at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden.

The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that “Biden pulled Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Modi together Tuesday for a discussion during the Summit.”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commissioner Mike Duheme said in October that there is evidence to suggest that India was involved in the killing of three people and not just Nijjar, who was shot last year as he left a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

The RCMP has, so far, charged eight people with murder and another 22 with extortion. The RCMP also said it was convinced that 13 other individuals were in “imminent danger” and that, “the scale of India’s activities could not be stopped solely by law enforcement”.

As a result, the RCMP said, officers had travelled to New Delhi on October 8 but “India used an administrative technicality to block the meeting.”

The RCMP said it also travelled to Washington on October 10, but “while an Indian officer confirmed the meeting, they never showed up.”

The meeting is eventually said to have taken place on October 12 in Singapore where David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs, and an RCMP official, Mark Flynn, presented evidence to Doval, who is said to have rejected everything shown to him.

Last October, US federal prosecutors charged a man they identified as a member of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) with trying to orchestrate from abroad an assassination on US soil.

The indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court said that the man, Vikash Yadav, “directed the assassination plot from India” that targeted a New York-based Khalistan activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The US has pooled intelligence with Canada as the countries have investigated what the governments see as illegal conduct by a longtime partner.