Indians are inundated with false reports about the release of the Nijjar murder suspect

Millions of Indians woke up on Thursday to a deluge of news falsely claiming that four Indian nationals accused of murdering Sikh Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 had been released from custody after the case against them collapsed.

The stories were repeated in many different media, including the Times of India, which was the headline your report “Four Indians accused in Nijjar murder case released from custody in Canada.”

CBC News has confirmed that the reports are false. None of the Nijjar accused have been released from custody, nor are they expected to.

“It is not true that the four accused have been released on bail,” Ann Seymour of the BC Attorney’s Office told CBC News. “All four accused were detained and are still in custody.

His next court appearance is a pretrial panel on February 11, and he will also appear in court on February 12.

There is no fact checking on rumors on social media

Indian media that have repeated the false claims include Hindu Post, First Post, Hindustan Times, Business Today, Business Standard, India Today, The New Indian Express, Mint News, News 18 and others.

The news appears to have originated from Canadian social media claims which themselves appear to be based on a misinterpretation of court documents. One such tweet it has amassed nearly 300,000 views and was still active at the time of this article’s publication.

Last November, Crown prosecutors transferred the case to the Supreme Court of British Columbia from the Provincial Court of British Columbia, putting a stay of proceedings — or putting the legal process on hold — in the original provincial court case.

The province’s online court records show the original provincial court case was dismissed, leading to misinterpretation and false claims that the men had been released from custody.

Several Indian media linked the fake news to the alleged collapse of the Canadian police case against the four men, Karan Brar, Amandeep Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh, or to the alleged failure of “reckless” Canadian police to oppose their release on bail.

These claims are also false. Most or all of the articles remained in circulation at the time this report was published.

“Godi” media

Critics of the Narendra Modi government have pointed to the erosion of journalistic standards and press freedom as one of the consequences of his populist, Hindu and nationalist style of governance.

The country has witnessed the emergence of an aggressively biased “Godi” media, which adheres firmly to the Modi government’s narrative and sometimes targets perceived enemies of the Modi government with shoddy or poorly substantiated reporting.

Some of the media outlets that reported the false claims about the accused Nijjar match the media profile of Goda, but others do not. The Times of India has been in print for 186 years and is the world’s largest English-language newspaper, but it seems it hasn’t fact-checked social media claims any more than its more exciting counterparts in the Indian media scene.

Relations with India at a low level

The accusations and arrests surrounding Nijjar’s murder caused an unprecedented rupture in relations between Canada and India, with mutual expulsions dramatically reducing each country diplomatic presence in the second.

Canada has declared India’s High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats persona non grata in October, after the RCMP accused the Modi government of inciting a campaign of violence and intimidation in Canada that included murders, arson, extortion and assault.

CBC News reported that investigators are looking for the four accused in Nijjar’s murder, along with others, in connection with at least four other murders in Canadaincluding that of an 11-year-old boy.