Ottawa denies reports of drugs on Justin Trudeau's plane

New Delhi, September 29

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office has strongly denied a former Indian diplomat’s claim that his plane was “full of cocaine” when he came to India for the G20 summit this month.

‘Have credible proof on Nijjar’

Canada says it has human and signals intelligence to prove an alleged Indian link in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Nijjar in British Columbia on June 18. But it has not officially released any evidence to back up that claim.

“This is absolutely false and a troubling example of how disinformation can make its way into media reporting,” Trudeau’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The claim, made on an Indian TV channel, found its way into the Canadian print and TV segments amid a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Former Indian ambassador to Sudan Deepak Vohra said on Monday there were “credible rumours” that “sniffer dogs found cocaine on his plane”, and that Trudeau “didn’t come out of his room for two days”.

Vohra had gone to claim that Trudeau didn’t go to the President’s dinner because “people say he was in a drug-induced stupor”. Vohra had once called Chinese President Xi Jinping “Pping pong ting ling ting ling” during a TV debate.