Four Indian nationals, Karan Brar (22), Amandeep Singh (22), Kamalpreet Singh (22) and Karanpreet Singh (28), arrested in the murder of Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar, have been released. According to Indian media, the Supreme Court had issued a release order due to lack of evidence after the trial court stayed the proceedings. According to sources, the Canadian police could not present any concrete evidence against the accused.
This fake news was carried by several major Indian media outlets including Times of India, Tribune The Hindu, First Post, Hindustan Times, Business Today, Business Standard, India Today, The New Indian Express, Minute News, News 18 and other reputed media outlets.
Foreign media CBC News has confirmed that this news is false. None of the suspects in the Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar case has been released nor is there any hope of being released.
The BC Prosecution Service told CBC News that it is not true that the four suspects have been released on bail. All four remain in custody.
The news appears to have stemmed from claims made by Canadian social media accounts that themselves appear to be based on a misunderstanding of court documents.
Last November, Crown prosecutors moved the case from BC Provincial Court to BC Supreme Court, and filed a stay to temporarily halt the initial legal proceedings in provincial court.
Online provincial court records show that the original provincial court case was stayed, leading the juror to misinterpret it and claim that the suspects had been released on bail.
Critics of the Modi government say that Modi’s Hindu nationalist leadership style has led to a decline in the quality of journalism in India and has reduced press freedom. A partisan Godi media has emerged in India, which faithfully follows the Modi government’s narrative and often targets those perceived to be opponents of the Modi government with absurd or poor reporting.
Some of the outlets making false claims about the Bhai Nijjar accused fit the Godi media category, but many do not. The Times of India, which has been in publication for 186 years and is the world’s largest-circulated English-language newspaper, appears to have failed to verify the rumors circulating on social media. It ran the story without verifying it.
It is worth mentioning here that Bhai Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara in the city of Surrey in the Canadian province of British Columbia on June 18, 2023. In this case, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Karanpreet, Kamalpreet and Karan Brar in May 2024. They were charged in November 2024. The allegations and arrests in the Bhai Nijjar murder case have soured relations between India and Canada. Both countries have reduced their diplomatic presence in each other. In October, Canada expelled Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats, alleging that they were responsible for the incident. The RCMP had alleged that serious violent crimes in Canada, including murders and extortions, are linked to agents of the Indian government.
CBC News reported that investigators are also investigating whether the four accused in the Nijjar murder case are involved in four other murders in Canada, including the murder of an 11-year-old boy.
This clearly shows that the Indian media is losing its image by presenting false news. The main function of the media is also to verify the news so that misleading and false news is not presented.
