By JOE HUTCHISON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Justin Trudeau has angrily denied claims he traveled to India on a plane ‘full of cocaine’ and that he didn’t leave his hotel room for two days.
The Canadian PM’s Office has dismissed comments from former Indian diplomat Deepak Vohra over accusations he made on Monday on Indian television.
Vohra, a former Indian ambassador to Sudan, told Zee News: ‘When Justin Trudeau came to India for the G20 this month, his plane was full of cocaine. He did not come out of his room for two days.’
In a statement to the Toronto Sun, Trudeau’s office said: ‘This (is) absolutely false and a troubling example of how disinformation can make its way into media reporting.’
It comes after Trudeau had to publicly apologize after the Canadian Parliament recognized a man who fought alongside the Nazis in World War II.
Vohra, pictured here on the far right, made the comments on Zee News on Monday
According to the Toronto Sun, Vohra also said: ‘My wife saw him at the Delhi airport and said that Trudeau looked depressed and stressed.
‘We don’t know the reason. I don’t know the reality, but social media and some ‘credible rumours’ suggest that his plane was full of cocaine.
‘He has become lonely. He is now trying to show that he is a Canadian Rambo and nothing can go wrong in his presence. India has done the right thing by suspending visa services in Canada.’
The remarks had been made by the former diplomat after Trudeau alleged that Indian officials had a Sikh activist in British Columbia assassinated.
Trudeau’s accusations over the June 18 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh separatist, have sparked a widening rift between Canada and India and tit-for-tat of diplomatic expulsions.
The PM’s allegations of Indian government involvement in the gun murder, first made public on Monday, were based in part on intercepted communications between Indian officials and the country’s diplomats in Canada, an official told the Associated Press.
Some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada, the person said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say which ally provided intelligence, or give details of what was contained in the communications or how they were obtained.
The revelation came as India stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens and told Canada to reduce its diplomatic staff as the rift widened between the two countries.
Ties between the two countries have plunged to their lowest point in years after Trudeau told Parliament Monday there were ‘credible allegations’ of Indian involvement in the assassination on Canadian soil.
The bombshell claim set off an international tit-for-tat, with each country expelling a diplomat. India called the allegations ‘absurd.’
Nijjar, a plumber who was born in India and became a Canadian citizen in 2007, had been wanted by India for years before he was gunned down in June outside the temple he led in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.
At the time of his killing, Nijjar was working to organize an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India.
New Delhi´s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups in Canada have long been a strain on the relationship .
In March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government summoned the Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi, its top diplomat in the country, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada.
Signs of a broader diplomatic rift emerged at the summit of the Group of 20 leading world economies hosted by India earlier this month.
Trudeau had frosty encounters with Modi, and a few days later Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall. A trade deal between the two is now on pause.
On Wednesday, Trudeau had to apologize for the Canadian Parliament’s recognition of a man who fought alongside the Nazis in World War II.
Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was invited to Parliament and praised as a Ukrainian and Canadian hero by Trudeau and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It later emerged that Hunka had been involved in the Nazi division during World War II, prompting Speaker Anthony Rota to resign and Trudeau to apologize.
In a televised address, the Prime Minister said: ‘This is a mistake that deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada.
‘It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust and it was deeply, deeply painful for Jewish people.’
Just after Zelenskyy delivered an address in the House of Commons on Friday, Canadian lawmakers gave Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Rota drew attention to him.
Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.
Observers over the weekend began to publicize the fact that the First Ukrainian Division also was known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.