In British Columbia, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on 18 June.

He said Canadian intelligence had identified a “credible” connection between his death and the Indian state.

The Indian foreign ministry described the claims as “absurd” and politically motivated.

A statement from the ministry said, “We are a democratic polity committed to the rule of law.”.

On a mid-June evening in Surrey, a city about 30km (18 miles) east of Vancouver, Mr Nijjar, 45, was shot by two masked gunmen in his vehicle.

In the westernmost province of British Columbia, he publicly campaigned for Khalistan – the creation of an independent Sikh homeland in the Punjab region of India. As a result of his activism, he has been threatened in the past.

Previously, India described him as a terrorist and leader of a militant separatist group – an accusation his supporters call “unfounded”.

At the recent G20 summit in Delhi, Prime Minister Trudeau raised the issue of Mr Najjar’s killing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A foreign government’s involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is unacceptable, he told lawmakers.