A south Edmonton split-level with a brick facade and a spruce out front is the unlikely Canadian headquarters of the Indian conglomerate the Srivastava Group.
Run by a New Delhi family, the company claims to have offices in Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, where it owns newspaper and oil and gas businesses.
But Canadian national security officials have alleged the Srivastava Group and its senior executive have also been involved in more secretive activities.
According to public records released to Global News, in 2009 India’s intelligence agencies “tasked” the Srivastava Group’s vice chair to influence Canadian politicians.
Indian intelligence wanted Ankit Srivastava to identify “random Caucasian politicians and attempt to direct them into supporting issues that impacted India,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service wrote.
Srivastava was told “to provide financial assistance and propaganda material to the politicians in order to exert influence over them,” CSIS added in the 2015 report.
In a subsequent report in 2021, CSIS wrote that Srivastava’s company had been accused of registering fake websites that presented themselves as news outlets, some of them Canadian.
“The objective of these fake media publications is to push a pro-India rhetoric and publish content that is critical of Pakistan,” added the CSIS report, which was classified secret.
Immigration officials were so concerned Srivastava could taint elections that they declared him a “serious threat to Canada” and barred him from the country.
“The information before me continues to suggest that the Srivastava Group maintained multiple fake news websites, some of which purported to be Canadian in origin,” the immigration department wrote.
“These websites, I argue, could be used to conduct operations in Canada to influence public opinion and the information available to voters, in effect compromising the normal functioning of Canadian government and electoral processes.”
The case comes as Canada is facing an unprecedented Indian government foreign interference offensive that has allegedly included disinformation, political meddling and violence.
Canada’s foreign interference commission wrote in its Jan. 28 report that Indian agents may have provided “illicit financial support” to politicians in an attempt to elect pro-India candidates or gain influence over them.
The inquiry did not name names but the government’s allegations about Srivastava, and his responses, are detailed in hundreds of pages of public documents filed in the Federal Court in Ottawa.
The records show Canadian officials have taken the fight against Indian foreign interference and disinformation to a new front: the immigration system.
CSIS declined to comment.
But Srivastava has argued his innocence for almost a decade, and two rulings from the bench have gone his way, most recently last month.
“The allegations against him are based on unreasonable inferences which are unsubstantiated and from unreliable sources,” his lawyer Lorne Waldman said.
A 42-year-old businessman, Srivastava was born in India, studied in Geneva and honeymooned in Bora Bora with his Canadian bride, who sponsored him to immigrate as her spouse.
“My husband is a successful business owner in India and would like to expand his business in Canada in the field of media and natural gas exploration,” she wrote in her 2014 application.
“He has already started the research of expanding his newspaper in Canada with the name of Canadian Politics Today, where this media would target majorly on activities of the government.”
Before granting him residence, Canadian officials interviewed Srivastava at the High Commission in New Delhi on June 16, 2015. CSIS sent its security screening report to the Canada Border Services Agency a month later.
The CSIS report said Srivastava had admitted he met frequently with India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) and foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
He “revealed that he was tasked by RAW to covertly influence Canadian government representatives and agencies on behalf of the Indian government,” CSIS added.
“Mr. Srivastava stated that the guidance from RAW included that he was to provide financial assistance and propaganda material to the politicians in order to exert influence on them.”
“As an example,” CSIS continued, “Mr. Srivastava stated that he was tasked to convince politicians that funding from Canada was being sent to Pakistan to support terrorism.”
India has long complained that Canadian Sikhs who support the separatist Khalistan movement send money to armed groups in Pakistan that conduct attacks in India.
“Furthermore, Mr. Srivastava stated that RAW had also tasked him to meet with government officials in Belgium and Canada in an effort to influence their views in favour of the Indian government.”
CSIS said Srivastava met with the “IB and RAW handlers outside of Canada at least every two months and that the last time he met with them was in May 2015.”
He “emphasized that he had no choice but to cooperate with RAW and IB,” the CSIS report added, but “he had not been successful in his efforts.”
Calling the matter a “gross misunderstanding,” Srivastava denied he was told to finance politicians, but said Indian intelligence “offered to compensate me for my assistance.”
“But I refused this flatly.”
“The requests by the RAW and IB essentially amounted to a request for me to lobby Canadian politicians to influence them in favour of India’s policies,” he wrote.
“Their requests were not to spy or provide information. It was to influence their views in favour of India. Even so, I refused their requests.”
He claimed his meetings with the intelligence officers were “in my capacity as a journalist” since his company owns the New Delhi Times newspaper.
As editor-in-chief, Srivastava claimed he only interacted with IB and RAW officers “as a media person for the purposes of gathering news.”
(Asked about his publication, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said it was not among the major news sources tracked in its annual survey of Indian media.)
He also argued he had only received a summary of his interview with Canadian officials in New Delhi rather than a transcript, and disagreed with the characterization of his statements.
Regardless, Canada’s immigration department refused Srivastava’s application for permanent residence, alleging there were reasonable grounds to believe he was involved in espionage.
He appealed to the Federal Court and in 2020, a judge sided with him: His application was sent back to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for another assessment.
“The court found that there was insufficient evidence to meet the very low requirements to find someone inadmissible and rejected IRCC’s finding related to his alleged membership in Indian intelligence,” his lawyer said in a statement to Global News.
By then, however, Srivastava was facing new allegations.
The Srivastava Group describes itself as one of India’s fastest-growing business houses, with a “leadership position” in “the key industries that drive economic growth.”
Those include natural resources, clean energy, aerospace, consulting, health care, media and publishing, according to its website.
Its headquarters, however, uses the same New Delhi address Srivastava listed as his residence on his immigration forms, while the Canadian office is an Alberta home owned by his in-laws.
The modest Edmonton house is listed in corporate records as the office of three Srivastava Group businesses: the New Delhi Times Inc., A2N Energy and A2N International Trading Corp.
Srivastava and his wife are the only officers of all three, according to Alberta and federal records.
The corporate mission of the Srivastava Group is to publish “content that educates” and “build healthier lives,” but it has been accused of activities Canada deemed unhealthy to democracy.
In 2019 and 2020, EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based collective that investigates disinformation, released reports linking the Srivastava Group to “a pro-India influence network.”
“The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also to a lesser extent China,” EU DisinfoLab reported.
Using fake news sites and non-profit organizations, the scheme allegedly sought to “improve the perception of India,” and secure the support of international institutions.
Methods allegedly included impersonating United Nations-accredited non-profit groups and using fake media, some of it targeting South-Asian populations in Canada.
Based on the allegations, immigration authorities told Srivastava in 2022 that allowing him to immigrate would be contrary to Canada’s interests.
He was a major player in the Srivastava Group, which “has engaged in a number of disinformation campaigns” since 2005, the immigration section wrote.
“Fake media outlets linked to the Srivastava Group in Europe include EP Today, EU Chronicle, the Times of Geneva, and 4 News Agency,” they wrote.
Sixteen of the websites were “designed to look like local Canadian news websites,” the report on Srivastava read, citing a 2019 CBC story. The websites promoted pro-India messaging and amplified fake or misleading articles about India’s rivals, the Canadian immigration report said.
The report also noted that a company called Aglaya Scientific Aerospace Technology Systems used the same New Delhi address as the Srivastava Group and was owned by Srivastava’s brother.
Aglaya sells “information warfare” tools such as malware and intrusion software that can be used to disrupt critical infrastructure and steal commercial, government and military secrets, it said.
The company had done business with groups implicated in state-sponsored hacking and surveillance targeting pro-democracy activists and political leaders of Canada’s allies, the immigration section said.
Aglaya did not respond to requests for comment.
Allowing Srivastava to resettle in Canada would further the Srivastava Group’s ability to pursue “disinformation operations in Canada to the detriment of the national interest and national security,” the government report continued.
“Fake news and disinformation can have a significant adverse impact on Canadian civil discourse, policymaking, and government relationships,” the immigration department wrote.
“As it appears that the Srivastava Group’s disinformation campaigns have already targeted Canada’s South Asian populations in the past, I am concerned that your presence in Canada could contribute to compromising the integrity of Canadian electoral processes.”
Srivastava countered that his company had “never engaged in deliberately disseminating disinformation” and denied any role in his brother’s company.
“I have not conducted any disinformation campaigns in Canada,” he wrote. “I have never undertaken any activity that might harm Canada since my family is Proudly Canadian and I, too, plan to join them in their allegiance to Canada.”
He questioned the reliability of reports by EU DisinfoLab, which he said had faced “legal sanction and criticism” of its work. They did not cite evidence about the alleged connection between the organizations featured in the report and the Srivastava Group, he said.
Nor did the reports provide evidence the Srivastava Group disseminated falsehoods, he continued, insisting criticism of Pakistan’s human rights abuses was not disinformation.
“Moreover, even if the allegation that the Srivastava Group disseminated false information about Pakistan were true, it is not clear how this would make the applicant a danger to the security of Canada.”
EU DisinfoLab dismissed Srivastava’s criticism of its work, which was widely covered by news outlets ranging from the BBC to Vice and raised at Canada’s foreign interference commission.
“We stand firmly and unequivocally by our report and its findings,” said Gary Machado, EU DisinfoLab’s managing director. “In the coming weeks, we will be publishing additional open-source evidence in response to this umpteenth attempt to discredit our work.”
Disinformation expert Marcus Kolga said EU DisinfoLab is a “very credible” organization, and its research “exposed a really vast network that was developed by this Indian company.”
Allowing a foreign national involved in such activity to immigrate would be “hugely problematic” for Canada, particularly for communities targeted by these operations, he said.
But after he was again rejected by Canada’s immigration system, Srivastava took his case back to the court and the judge ruled on Jan. 31, 2025 that it was unreasonable to connect him to his brother’s company.
The case was sent back to the immigration department for yet another review. The court decision did not address the disinformation allegations. The Canada Border Services Agency declined to comment.
“Simply put the Federal Court on two occasions has rejected assertions by IRCC that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Srivastava is inadmissible,” his lawyer said.
Since the Srivastava Group was publicly linked to disinformation allegations, its website has gone offline. Emails sent to the company were returned as undeliverable.
Nobody answered the front door last week at the house identified as its Canadian branch. The downtown Edmonton suite that A2N Energy called its office had been emptied.
Although it once claimed to own 4,000 hectares of Alberta oil and gas rights with more than a billion barrels, A2N Energy put its interests in the Calling Lake West, Judy Creek and Therien areas of the province up for sale in 2023.
According to Corporations Canada, A2N International Trading is facing pending dissolution for non-compliance. The Alberta government struck the New Delhi Times from its corporate registry in 2023 for failing to file annual reports.
Srivastava’s name, meanwhile, continues to appear in his newspaper above columns about Modi’s “principled vision,” “historic” foreign travels, “diplomatic acumen” and “diplomatic masterstroke.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca with files from Morgan Black
