India's envoy to Canada, who is being expelled over what Ottawa says are links to the murder of a Sikh leader, insisted in an interview he was innocent and said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had wrecked bilateral political ties,

Canada and India have each expelled six diplomats in tit-for-tat moves as part of an escalating dispute over the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada.

The ministry hinted the government could take retaliatory action against Canadian diplomats in India

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

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.