India criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday, describing him as "arrogant" for his handling of the disastrous diplomatic fallout following the murder of a Sikh separatist in Canada in 2023.

New Delhi has maintained its defiant stance towards Ottawa – a sharp contrast to its tolerant approach this week towards the United States, where India is also accused of orchestrating a separate assassination plot.

Canada alleged that India arranged for the killing of Sikh separatist, Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in a parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.

India called these allegations "ridiculous," but Trudeau stated in a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday that Canada has "clear indications that India violated Canadian sovereignty."

Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi Stewart Wheeler, who was ordered by India to leave the country by Saturday evening, said that Ottawa provided "reliable and irrefutable evidence of links between Indian government agents and the killing of a Canadian citizen."

Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday that they had not seen this evidence.

He stated, "Canada has provided us (India) with no evidence whatsoever to support the serious accusations it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats." "The responsibility for the damage caused by this arrogant behavior to India-Canada relations lies solely with Prime Minister Trudeau."

Nijjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – advocated for the establishment of a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, separate from India and was wanted by Indian authorities on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder, with four Indian citizens arrested in connection with Nijjar's murder.

Last year, the Indian government briefly imposed entry visa restrictions on Canadians, and this week the two countries expelled each other's ambassadors.

In contrast, New Delhi's response to Washington was very different, with the U.S. State Department saying on Wednesday that India informed them that an intelligence officer accused of orchestrating an assassination plot on U.S. soil is no longer in government service.

The U.S. Attorney's Office charged an Indian citizen last November in connection with a failed assassination attempt in New York against a supporter of a separate homeland for Sikhs.

The indictment described a "government employee of India," whose name was not publicly disclosed, as having recruited the hitman and remotely orchestrated the assassination plot, including arranging the delivery of $15,000 in cash.

The Indian newspaper "Hindustan Times," citing an unnamed U.S. official on Monday, reported that India not only expelled the employee but also arrested him on "local charges." The U.S. State Department has not confirmed the employee's arrest.