India on Monday announced withdrawing its high commissioner and other “targeted diplomats and officials” from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to an investigation into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major escalation of tensions amid the already frosty ties between the two nations.

India’s decision came shortly after the Canadian Charge d’Affaires, Stewart Wheelers, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and was told bluntly that the baseless “targeting” of Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other diplomats and officials was “completely unacceptable”. New Delhi described the charges against Verma as “concocted” and “preposterous imputations” and ascribes the allegations to the “political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics”.