Toronto: All four accused in the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, are subject to mandatory detention orders passed by a British Columbia court.
“The court imposed mandatory detention orders on all four accused. All four accused continue to remain in custody, and there are no bail hearings scheduled,” Ann Seymour, Acting Communications Counsel for the BC Prosecution Service, which comes under the Ministry of Attorney General, said.
Amid social media and online reports that the four Indian nationals had been released, Seymour had clarified on Thursday that they remained in custody.
The four accused, Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Amandeep Singh, are in holding facilities.
The detention orders means that they will remain there till the trial commences. A judge may review a bail application at a later date, but that may not be granted as they face serious charges of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Nijjar was killed on June 18, 2023 in Surrey, British Columbia. Three months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder. India had described those charges as “absurd” and “motivated”.
Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh were arrested from in and around Edmonton in May last year. Amandeep Singh was charged days later while he was in custody of the Peel Regional Police (PRP). He was arrested in November 2023 on nine charges including those related to unauthorised possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance.
In November, the prosecution, called the Crown, moved for the stay of proceedings in the provincial court and is “now proceeding by way of a direct indictment” before the province’s Supreme Court, a spokesperson for the BC Prosecution Service told the Hindustan Times earlier.
A direct indictment means the accused will not have a preliminary inquiry but will instead proceed directly to trial. That is anticipated to be a fairly lengthy period of pretrial applications given the complexity of the case. November 18 was their first appearance before the Supreme Court.
Their next appearance will be on February 11, 2025, for a case management conference and scheduling of the pretrial applications and the trial dates will occur sometime in the new year.
Amandeep Singh made his first court appearance on May 15, while the others appeared before a judge on May 7. May 21 was the first time all four appeared together in a court. All four are facing charges related to first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The hearings for the accused at the provincial court, the latest on October 2, were adjourned five times, as the prosecution sought additional time for disclosure, or providing of the case material to the lawyers for the accused.
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