India on Wednesday strongly trashed as "smear campaign" a Canadian media report that claimed that the Indian prime minister was aware of the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Referring to the report quoting an unnamed official, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said such "ludicrous statements" should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.
"We do not normally comment on media reports. However, such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve," he said.
"Smear campaigns like this only further damage our already strained ties," he said.
Jaiswal was responding to media queries regarding the report in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. In the report, the newspaper cited inputs from a senior national security official.
The report claimed the Indian national security advisor and the external affairs minister were also in the loop of the plot. Nijjar was gunned down on Canadian soil last year.
India-Canada ties nosedived last month after Canada linked Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and some other diplomats to the murder.
India has strongly rejected all the allegations made by Ottawa in connection to the case and subsequently recalled the high commissioner. The Canadian government had said the Indian diplomats were expelled from the country.
New Delhi expelled Canadian Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and five other diplomats following Canada's allegations.
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