Canadian police said they have arrested three Indian men in the killing of a Sikh leader last year that became the center of a diplomatic spat with India.

Police charged the three on Friday over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and said they were probing whether the suspects had links to the Indian government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India in September when he said there were "credible allegations" of Indian involvement in Nijjar's death. India has dismissed the accusations as "absurd".

"It is their political compulsion in Canada to blame India," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.