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.

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.

Suspicious incidents from Brampton to B.C., and as far away as California, Italy and Australia are coming into focus following the allegations.

Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple that he led in 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. The movement is banned in India.

India said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday. The ministry also said it had summoned Acting High Commissioner in India Stewart Wheeler, currently Canada's top diplomat in the South Asian country. India said it was expelling the diplomats because it was not confident their safety could be guaranteed.

Canada's decision to expel the diplomats comes amid an ongoing investigation into the 2023 death of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

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