New Delhi – In a perplexing turn of events, Canada approved the long-pending citizenship application of Hardeep Singh Nijjar just months after India issued a Red-Corner Notice (RCN) against him. This unexpected decision by Canada has raised eyebrows and sparked controversy.
An RCN, issued through Interpol, typically obligates a country to arrest and deport the accused. However, Canada seemed to defy this norm, leaving Indian authorities bewildered.
The RCN saga began nine years ago when the first notice was issued in 2014, followed by a second in 2016. Despite these notices, Nijjar was granted Canadian citizenship. What’s intriguing is the varying accounts of when this citizenship was granted. Initially, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller stated that Nijjar became a Canadian citizen on March 3, 2015. However, Miller later revised this date to May 25, 2007, creating doubts and confusion among Indian agencies. This discrepancy was communicated to Canada and Interpol by the Indian Government.
Moreover, Indian authorities questioned how Nijjar had managed to reside in Canada from 1997 to 2015, considering his past. Nijjar’s arrival in Toronto in 1997 under the alias ‘Ravi Sharma,’ using a fraudulent passport, raised concerns. His decision to shave his hair following a 1996 raid at his uncle’s house in Uttar Pradesh, where he was hiding after being detained by Punjab Police in 1995, further fueled suspicions.
In June 1998, Nijjar filed an affidavit and presented a medical record detailing alleged torture in India, seeking refuge in Canada. However, his plea was rejected. Curiously, less than two weeks later, he married a woman who sponsored him, but immigration officials noticed that she had arrived in Canada in 1997, sponsored by a different husband.
This unusual sequence of events has cast a shadow over Nijjar’s citizenship and raised questions about Canada’s decision-making process. The matter remains a topic of intense discussion and speculation.
