Surrey provincial court Judge Mark Jetté has adjorned to Oct. 1 the high-profile murder case of Surrey Sikh temple president Hardeep Singh Nijjar as many thousands of pages of documents have yet to be disclosed to defence lawyers.
It was the fourth adjournment since May 15.
Nijjar, 45, was shot to death on June 18, 2023 in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, in the 7000-block of Scott Road in Newton. He was found in his truck.
Amandeep Singh, 22, Karan Brar, 22, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four defence lawyers appeared on behalf of their clients by video on Teams on Aug. 7, along with Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy, as she requested the adjournment.
"The Crown has been working diligently to get disclosure to the defendants in this matter," she told Jetté, "but I've advised my friends the process of getting the substantive disclosure in this matter is going to take some months more."
Kenworthy said to date the defence has already received "in the region of about 10,000 pages of disclosure" and that the Crown hopes to disclose about 10,000 more by the end of next week.
The trial, she added, "will certainly" be heard in B.C Supreme Court.
Outside court B.C. Gurdwaras Council spokesman Moninder Singh addressed the delays.
"The time it's taking for the trial to actually start or even get to a point where we get kind of movement on this, it can be frustrating I think to the family, for others in the community, but we do understand that this is a part of the process in the Canadian judicial system," Singh said. "We heard today that 10,000 pages of disclosure have been put out already, 10,000 more are coming next week, and we don't know if there's 10,000 or 100,000 more that's going to be provided before the Oct. 1st date of adjournment, but we know that's a part of the process in this situation."
Nijjar was an ardent supporter of securing an independent Sikh nation in India called Khalistan and his supporters maintain India's government was involved in his killing. Singh told reporters that the focus of Nijjar's supporters is "that India really is the culprit, these are just the (alleged) individuals they used, so we're more interested in that – what the government of Canada will be doing with India."
Last September Prime Minister Trudeau told the House of Commons there is "credible" intelligence linking Indian government agents to the slaying but the Government of India rejected his claim as "absurd."
