Canada’s allegation that India’s Home Minister Amit Shah was behind a series of plots to kill or intimidate Sikh separatists was “absurd and baseless”, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday.

The Indian government summoned a representative of the Canadian High Commission on Friday, and handed the official a note protesting “in the strongest terms” the allegations against Shah.

On October 29, Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison alleged that Shah authorised a “campaign to intimidate or kill” Sikh separatists in Canada. This was the first time that a Canadian official alleged the Indian home minister’s involvement on record.

Morrison made the remarks before a panel looking into the “electoral interference and criminal activities in Canada by agents of the Government of India”.

The minister was asked about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s allegation that agents of the Indian government were complicit in widespread crimes in Canada.

The committee referred to The Washington Post report on October 14, which quoted unidentified Canadian officials as saying that Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing near Vancouver in June 2023 was “part of a broader campaign of violence against Indian dissidents” orchestrated by a senior Indian official and an operative from the country’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.

The Canadian officials reportedly identified the Indian official who authorised information-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists as Shah.

Morrison told the committee on October 29: “The journalists called me and asked me if it was that person [Shah]…I confirmed it was that person.”

Commenting on the statement, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, said on Saturday that high-ranking Canadian officials had been deliberately leaking “unfounded insinuations” to the international media as part of a strategy to discredit India.

The spokesperson said that the Canadian minister’s statement “only confirms the view that the government of India has long held about the current Canadian government's political agenda and behavioural pattern”.

He added: “Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties.”

Diplomatic ties between India and Canada have been strained for more than a year.

In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his country’s parliament that intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to Nijjar’s killing.

Nijjar was a supporter of Khalistan, a separate homeland for Sikhs sought by some groups. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is designated a terrorist outfit in India.

New Delhi had rejected Canada’s allegations as “absurd and motivated” and said they were an attempt by Ottawa to divert attention from the fact that it was providing shelter to those threatening India’s sovereignty. India had also ordered Canada to withdraw more than 40 diplomatic staff from the country.

On October 14, the Indian government said it was withdrawing its High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and some other diplomats from the North American country. It also announced that it had expelled six Canadian diplomats. Ottawa also said that it had expelled six Indian diplomats, but Delhi maintained that the personnel had been withdrawn before the Canadian decision.

This had come as New Delhi rejected diplomatic communication from Canada naming Verma and other Indian envoys as “persons of interest” in an investigation in the country.

While it was unclear which investigation Ottawa was referring to, reports said that it was related to Nijjar’s killing in Canada.