Toronto
Police are investigating a major fire at a residence across from a home owned in Oakville, Ontario, by the secessionist outfit Sikhs for Justice’s (SFJ) general-counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The local news network reported that the fire was reported on Thursday night and led to damages worth nearly 500,000 Canadian dollars ( ₹3 crore ), including several sports cars.
It also cited Halton Regional Police as stating the fire appeared to have been caused by faulty wiring and did “not believe the fire to be criminal in nature and have not found the fire suspicious”.
The residents of the home were evacuated and two treated for smoke inhalation.
The home was across from the Canadian place of residence of Pannun, who lives in New York. “Once Canadian security officials investigate the cause of the fire only then it will become clear whether it was accidental or crime of arson and who was the target,” Pannun told the Hindustan Times.
“There is appropriate security covering my home around the clock and any attempts of violence will be forcefully responded by the Canadian law enforcement,” he added.
He was recently at the Oakville residence in August but the owners of the home that suffered from the fire had no connection to the separatist Khalistan movement.
In November last year, an indictment was unsealed by a Federal court in the United States alleging that an Indian national, Nik Gupta, was part of a thwarted plot to kill Pannun.
Gupta was subsequently extradited from Czechia to the United States where he is facing trial in the case.
India has established a high-level inquiry to probe the alleged murder plot.
Pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18 last year, was a close associate of Pannun’s and SFJ’s principal organiser of the so-called Khalistan referendum in Canada.
