India has rejected the allegations by Canada, the Ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
"We have seen and reject the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, as also the statement by their Foreign Minister. Allegations of Government of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated...We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law," the statement said.
On Monday, Canada took the step of expelling a high-ranking Indian diplomat while it conducts an investigation into what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as credible accusations that the Indian government might have had connections to the killing of a Khalistani terrorist in Canada.
Trudeau, addressing the Canadian Parliament, disclosed that Canadian intelligence agencies had initiated an inquiry into the accusations following the assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was a fervent advocate for an independent Sikh homeland, often referred to as Khalistan, and he was fatally shot on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.
During his speech, Trudeau mentioned that he had raised this matter with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 summit the previous week. Trudeau emphasized that he had conveyed to Modi that any involvement by the Indian government would be deemed unacceptable and had requested cooperation in the ongoing investigation.
“If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other," Joly said. “As a consequence we have expelled a top Indian diplomat."
Canada has a Sikh population of more than 770,000, or about 2% of its total population.
“Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar," Trudeau said.
(With inputs from AP)
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