Canada has expelled a ‘top’ Indian diplomat. Who is Pavan Kumar Rai?

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly’s office confirmed the expelled official is Pavan Kumar Rai, who she said led the Canadian branch of India’s foreign intelligence service.

Canada expelled a “top Indian diplomat” Monday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped a major allegation that agents of the Indian government were tied to the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

The diplomat in question is Pavan Kumar Rai, according to the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. He was posted to the Indian High Commission in Ottawa, and Joly had told reporters in Ottawa on Monday that the expulsion was “as a consequence” of the intelligence.

Joly said Rai led the Canadian branch of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence service.

“The allegations that a representative of a foreign government may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian here in Canada, on Canadian soil, is not only troubling but it is completely unacceptable,” she said.

“If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other.”

The Indian High Commission’s website lists Rai as minister for “eco, coordination, community affairs.” And while details about his background have been sparse from Canadian officials, Indian media outlets are reporting more about his background and previous roles.

Global News has not independently verified the reports from Indian media about Rai’s background and previous postings.

According to India’s Outlook Magazine, a weekly English news publication, Rai is an officer of the Indian Police Service’s (IPS) 1997 batch. He was posted to the northern Sikh-majority state of Punjab, which in the 1980s and early 1990s was the centre of an armed conflict between the Indian state and Sikh militants fighting for secession.