Days after being denied entry into Canada, retired Central Police Reserve Force officer Tejinder Singh Dhillon arrived in Toronto on Friday. “It was very smooth. I didn’t have any problem,” he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

The 67-year-old, who had retired as inspector general of police in 2010, had been stopped at the Vancouver airport with his wife on May 18 and questioned for up to seven hours. The airport authorities said he had served in an organisation that allegedly “engaged in terrorism” and “gross human rights violations”. His Canadian visa was cancelled and he was put on a return flight to India on May 20. His wife was allowed to proceed to her destination in Canada, but she had decided to return with him.

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Later, The High Commissioner of Canada Nadir Patel issued a statement saying that the Canadian government regretted the inconvenience caused to him and his family. Patel said that the language used to explain the denial “did not reflect the government of Canada’s policy toward India or any particular organisation, including the Central Reserve Police Force of India”.

Dhillon thanked Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi, who, he said, gave him a new multi-year visa and also paid for his air ticket for this trip this time.

Dhillon had visited the Canadian mission before leaving India, where he said a senior Canadian official told him they were “keen to maintain healthy relations with India”. Canada’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship department also expressed regret over the incident.

India has had some hiccups with Canada over the past couple of months. In April, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had called the country’s Sikh defence minister a “Khalistani sympathiser” and had refused to meet him during a trip to India. India had also put down an Ontario resolution that had called the 1984 anti-Sikh riots “genocide”.