The Canadian government on Thursday stated that it has no evidence linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the alleged plot to kill Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

“Any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate,” said Nathalie G Drouin, National Security and Intelligence Adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Her remarks came a day after a Canadian news report quoted an unidentified national security official as saying that Modi was aware of the alleged plot to kill Nijjar. New Delhi, in response, dismissed the news report and said that it was part of a “smear campaign”.

Nijjar was killed by masked gunmen near Canada’s Vancouver in June 2023. He 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.

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

On Wednesday, The Globe and Mail quoted the unidentified national security official as saying that security agencies in the North American country believed Modi “knew about the killing of a Sikh separatist leader [referring to Nijjar] in British Columbia and other violent plots”.

Intelligence agencies in Canada and the United States tied the assassination operations to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the official told the Canadian newspaper, adding that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were also in the loop.

“We do not normally comment on media reports,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to the news report on Wednesday.

“However, such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” he added. “Smear campaigns like this only further damage our already strained ties.”

On Thursday, Drouin said that the Canadian government had not stated, nor was it aware of evidence linking Modi, Doval or Jaishankar to “the serious criminal activity” within the North American country.

“On October 14th, because of a significant and ongoing threat to public safety, the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and officials took the extraordinary step of making public accusations of serious criminal activity in Canada perpetrated by agents of the Government of India,” she added.

Drouin was referring to a diplomatic communication from Canada naming Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar 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.

New Delhi rejected the allegations and said it was withdrawing Verma and some other diplomats from Canada. 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.

On October 16, Trudeau said that he had intelligence but no “hard evidentiary proof” when he first went public with allegations that Indian government agents may have been involved in the killing of Nijjar.

On October 29, Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison alleged that Shah was behind a series of plots to kill or intimidate Khalistan separatists in Canada.

This was the first time that a Canadian official went on the record to allege the Indian home minister’s involvement in the alleged campaign to target Khalistan separatists abroad.

The External Affairs Ministry described Morrison’s allegations as “absurd and baseless”.

Diplomatic ties between India and Canada have been strained for more than a year after Trudeau’s allegations about Nijjar’s killing in September 2023.

Back then, New Delhi had rejected Canada’s allegations as “absurd and motivated” and said that they were an attempt by Ottawa to divert attention from the fact that it was providing shelter to those threatening India’s sovereignty.