Courtroom 107 at Surrey provincial court was packed on Tuesday (June 25) with people interested in hearing more news on the fate of the accused in the murder of Newton gurdwara president Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
After a lengthy delay due to technical difficulties related to Ontario's court system using Zoom and British Columbia using Teams, one of the four suspects charged in Nijjar's murder, Karan Brar, appeared in person in the high-security courtroom, wearing red prison attire.
Other suspects in the murder include Amandeep Singh, 22, whose counsel appeared via video from Ontario, where Singh is being held, as well as Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28. They are all charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Nijjar's death.
After hearing from the gathered counsel about how they were still in the process of receiving disclosure documents, Judge Emmet Duncan agreed to bump the next appearance date for the four suspects about six weeks.
"These matters will be adjourned to August 7 at 9:30 (a.m.) in this courtroom," he said.
Accusations against India have grown for the possibility of its involvement in Nijjar鈥檚 death, which the country has denied on several occasions. Last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there is credible evidence for the claim, but the matter is still under investigation.
For B.C. Gurdwara Council spokesperson Moninder Singh and the local Sikh community, the question of potential Indian involvement is uppermost in their minds.
"I think this was expected. We know it's all a part of the process," he said at the courthouse afterward.
"The bigger issue is India, and holding India accountable... for their interference," he said.
"The Canadian justice system will take its turn, but we do know that India has interfered ... in this process, and that threat is still out there."
At recent events commemorating Nijjar's murder, Singh noted the community wants to find out more about the question of India's political interference in Canada.
"People here are really interested to know how deep does India infiltrate, how have they infiltrated Canada and what will Canada be doing about that to kind of protect its own sovereignty and its democratic processes," he said.
