Mark Carney declined to answer if he believed Indian PM had a role in murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney has defended his decision to invite India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta, despite Canada’s federal police’s conclusion that the murder of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia was orchestrated by the “highest levels” of the Indian government.

Carney declined to answer reporters’ questions over whether he believed Modi had a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a killing on Canadian soil that shattered relations between the two countries.

“There is a legal process that is literally under way and quite advanced in Canada, and it’s never appropriate to make comments with respect to those legal processes,” he said on Friday. Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder.

The summit, attended by key world leaders, runs from 15 to 17 June in Kananaskis, Alberta.