Close associates of SFJ’s Pannun arrested on gun charges in Canada
Gurpatwant Pannun’s aide Inderjeet Singh Gosal was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) from the town of Whitby in connection with multiple firearm-related offences
Toronto: The secessionist group Sikhs for Justice’s (SFJ) Canadian coordinator for the so-called Khalistan Referendum Inderjeet Singh Gosal was arrested by police on Friday and faces charges including the careless use of a handgun.
While reports emerged of the arrest, few details were available earlier but the outlet Global News reported on Monday that Gosal was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) from the town of Whitby in connection with multiple firearm-related offences.
Two others were also arrested along with him and they were identified by the outlet as 23-year-old Arman Singh, a resident of Toronto, and 41-year-old Jagdeep Singh, who is a resident of New York. Like Gosal, Jagdeep Singh is also believed to be a close associate of New York-based SFJ general counsel Gurpatwant Pannun. Jagdeep Singh, a journalist, is a prominent online proponent of the separatist movement in the United States.
The outlet said that the 36-year-old Gosal appeared before a court in Oshawa on Monday and cited court documents with regard to the charges.
The OPP has not issued a statement about the arrest as yet, but earlier on Monday, SFJ confirmed that Gosal was taken into custody by Canadian police. In a statement, SFJ said that “the arrest of Inderjeet Singh Gosal on firearms charges is in fact a case about the Canadian government’s duty to protect the life of a Canadian citizen who is facing imminent and grave threat to his life from Indian government”.
Gosal replaced pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar as the Canadian coordinator of the so-called referendum.
Nijjar was killed on June 18, 2023, and three months later then 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 described those accusations as “absurd” and “motivated” and the relationship cratered subsequently though a reset has been in progress since Mark Carney became PM earlier this year.
SFJ has claimed that a threat continues against campaigners for the so-called Khalistan Referendum, which Nijjar led in Canada. It claimed Gosal has been offered witness protection by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and issued multiple duty-to-warn notices within the past six to eight weeks.
Gosal was among those charged by Canadian police last year after the violent attack on the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton on November 3, 2024 by pro-Khalistan radicals.
