The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said India had repeatedly asked Canada to extradite individuals believed to be part of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s group, but received no response.

“We informed Canada about the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and its syndicates and requested their provisional arrest and extradition some years back, and also recently,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. “However, there has been no response from Canada so far.”

Bishnoi, a gangster from Punjab, is currently lodged at Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail. The Mumbai Police suspect his involvement in the killing of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique on Saturday. Bishnoi has also been accused of masterminding the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala on May 29, 2022.

Jaiswal’s comments came days after diplomatic tensions escalated between India and Canada, resulting in the expulsion of diplomats from both sides.

On Thursday, he said India had made 26 requests for the extradition of six persons – Gurjit Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Arshdeep Singh Gill, Lakhbir Singh Landa and Gurpreet Singh – in view of their alleged ties to Lawrence Bishnoi.

“They haven’t taken any action on our core concerns…There is a political motive also behind this,” he said.

In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his country’s parliament that intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to the killing of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June that year.

On Monday, Canadian police officials alleged that agents of the Indian government were working with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to plan and execute violence in the North American country.

On Wednesday, Trudeau told an inquiry commission in his country that he had intelligence but no “hard evidentiary proof” when he first went public with the allegations about Nijjar’s murder.

Nijjar was a supporter of Khalistan, an independent nation for Sikhs that some members of the community seek to carve out of India. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is designated a terrorist outfit in India.

India’s foreign ministry said in the early hours of Thursday that Trudeau’s statement confirmed New Delhi’s position that Ottawa had not presented any evidence to back its claims.