NEW DELHI: India-Canada relations appear headed into rough weather again as the Centre today refuted Justin Trudeau 's assertion that New Delhi has something to do with the presence of terror convict and Khalistani Jaspal Atwal at an official Mumbai event.

Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau yesterday defending his senior government official's suggestion that factions within the Indian government may have been behind the presence of the convicted Khalistani assassin during his recent trip to country.

"The Government of India, including security agencies, had nothing to do with presence of Jaspal Atwal at event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai, or (with the) invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable," said the ministry of external affairs today, reported ANI.

Atwal was a member of the now-banned International Sikh Youth Federation. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to kill the then Punjab cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986. Atwal later even confessed he was the shooter.

Atwal was the recipient of an invite from the Canadian High Commission in Delhi for a dinner event during Trudeau's trip to India. Worse, Trudeau's wife was photographed with him at an official Canadian event in Mumbai, making the Canadian PM's already fraught trip to India even more controversial. The Canadian High Commission soon rescinded the invite but the damage had been done.

At the time, a senior Canadian government official alleged a "conspiracy theory" - he said Indian factions may have been responsible for Atwal's presence in the country. Yesterday, in Canada 's House of Commons, Trudeau was questioned about the validity of that theory and he stuck to it.

"When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it is because they know it to be true," said Trudeau, essentially standing by the ''conspiracy theory" of Indian involvement in Atwal's presence in India.

Trudeau has been under the gun for being perceived as soft on Khalistani separatists and terrorists. Towards the end of his seven-day trip though, he came out strongly against separatism and said a united India was what he supports.

