India’s high commissioner to Canada has denied any involvement in the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader who was killed in British Columbia last year even though the Canadian government has named him as a person of interest in the assassination.

The diplomatic rift has suddenly grown more stark as Canada amplifies its accusations that India is directing lethal operations abroad.

India’s government is denying that it works with mobsters to target Sikh separatists in Canada as alleged publicly this week by Canadian officials in an escalating diplomatic dispute

Sanjay Kumar Verma, who is being expelled from Canada, says had ‘nothing at all’ to do with Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder.

Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, which is banned in India.

As India doubles down on rejecting the claim it is behind widespread crimes in Canada, its foreign ministry is accusing Ottawa of trying to smear New Delhi.The federal government ordered India's top envoy to leave the country on Monday after the RCMP said it had credible evidence that Indian agents played a role in extortion,

The decision is the latest flare-up between the countries since the killing of an activist in 2023.

Last week, US federal prosecutors charged an Indian government official with orchestrating a plot to murder a Sikh activist in New York City. India has designated that activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun,

Canada‘s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, says India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunity and cooperate in the investigation but it refused