Downing Street recognised the claims as ‘serious’ but was ‘not looking to conflate’ them with trade talks with Delhi.
Britain is forging on with trade talks with India despite acknowledging “serious allegations” that the Indian government was linked to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.
Downing Street said on Tuesday it is in “close touch” with Canada after its prime minister Justin Trudeau said New Delhi may have been behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The advocate of Sikh independence from India was gunned down outside a cultural centre in British Columbia in June.
India denied being behind the murder, expelling a senior Canadian diplomat on Tuesday in a tit-for-tat move and accusing Canada of interfering in its internal affairs.
In the UK, Rishi Sunak was keen not to let the severe row between two allies get in the way of the post-Brexit trade deal he is trying to secure with India.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We’re in close touch with our Canadian partners about these serious allegations.
“It’s right that the Canadian authorities are looking into them. But I’m not going to get ahead of that work that needs to take place now.”
He said “that work on trade negotiations will continue as before”, arguing it is “important not to get ahead of the work that Canadian partners are doing” investigating the allegations.
The official said Britain raises concerns directly during trade talks, but added that “with regards to the current negotiations with India these are negotiations about a trade deal and we are not looking to conflate with other issues”.
But he stressed it is “vitally important that a country’s sovereignty and international rule of law is respected”.
Mr Trudeau, who met with Mr Sunak at the G20 summit in New Delhi this month, raised the claims with the Prime Minister, according to Ottawa’s foreign minister Melanie Joly.
It is understood that the Prime Minister knew in advance that Canada, a fellow member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, was going to level the claims at India.
Downing Street said it was not aware of any plans to follow Canada’s move in expelling a diplomat.
Canada expelled four Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018.
Mr Trudeau’s allegation has led to fresh scrutiny being placed on the deaths of prominent Sikh figures, with three said to have died unexpectedly in recent months.
One, Avtar Singh Khanda, died in Birmingham in June. West Midlands Police said its review had concluded “there were no suspicious circumstances”.
Asked if his death should be reinvestigated, Mr Sunak’s spokesman said the police review had been “thorough”.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has in the past raised concerns with Mr Sunak about Sikh separatists in the UK, who seek an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan.
Mr Nijjar was organising an unofficial referendum for Khalistan at the time of his death, and Indian authorities had accused him of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest in India.
