New Delhi: Last week’s US indictment and the Canadian federal police’s subsequent remarks pin responsibility on Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang – and not Indian government agents – for the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, India said on Tuesday (July 14), in its first official response to the developments.Its statement comes against the backdrop of the former Canadian government’s accusation that Indian government agents were linked to Nijjar’s June 2023 murder – which set off a freeze in ties – and Washington’s indictment in the ‘Pannun murder plot’ alleging that an Indian intelligence official circulated a video of Nijjar’s corpse while orchestrating that plot.“We have noted the remarks made by the deputy commissioner of RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]. These remarks are consistent with the recently unsealed US indictment, which attributes responsibility to the members of the Lawrence Bishnoi organised crime group,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the weekly press briefing on Tuesday (July 14).He was referring to RCMP deputy commissioner Lisa Moreland’s remarks after the US indictments – one of which pertain to Bishnoi and his syndicate – were unsealed, that no evidence of Indian officials’ involvement had emerged during the coordinated international investigation against India-based transnational criminal networks that Washington has dubbed ‘Operation Hard Ball’.However Moreland, when asked in an interview of the alleged involvement of Indian officials in Nijjar’s murder, had said she would not comment given that persons in Canada are currently facing charges in that case, suggesting that Operation Hardball and Ottawa’s probe into the 2023 killing are on separate tracks.Immediately after the US indictments were unsealed, an Indian official source had told The Wire that New Delhi’s position is that Nijjar “was killed as an action between criminal gangs”.On Tuesday Jaiswal also said that India “has consistently maintained that transnational organised crime, terrorism, narco-trafficking, human trafficking, illegal firearms trafficking and related criminal networks pose a serious threat to our societies”.India and the US share ‘strong’, ‘effective’ and ‘growing’ cooperation in tackling terrorism and transnational organised crime, the spokesman added.Though India had strongly rejected the former Justin Trudeau-led Canadian government’s allegations that it had evidence of links between Indian officials and Nijjar’s murder, it adopted a more muted stance against Washington’s claim that Research and Analysis Wing official Vikash Yadav orchestrated a plot – foiled by US law enforcement – to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York.In that case US prosecutors had alleged that Yadav sent a video of Nijjar’s slumped body immediately after his killing to Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta, who in turn is said to have forwarded it to an American confidential informant and an undercover officer in furtherance of the ‘Pannun plot’.Gupta, according to the US, told the undercover US agent that Nijjar “was also the target” in addition to Pannun. He has since been extradited and tried, and awaits sentencing by a New York court.Last year the Modi government indirectly accepted an Indian official’s involvement in the Pannun plot, with the home ministry saying a high-powered committee had recommended legal action against “an individual” with “earlier criminal links and antecedents”, though it did not identify who that is.Jaiswal on Tuesday was also asked of the US’s indication that it will likely seek Bishnoi’s extradition. “As in any extradition case, it is something that will be dealt with as per the established legal obligations and judicial processes that are applicable in this particular case,” he responded.Apart from the Trudeau government’s allegations in the Nijjar murder, the RCMP in 2024 had also claimed that Canadian law enforcement had evidence linking agents of the Indian government to homicides, extortion and intimidation in Canada, including the alleged use of organised crime groups such as the Bishnoi gang.