FOREIGN Secretary Liz Truss has been urged to step up efforts to bring home a Scot who has been detained in India for more than four years.
Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, was arrested on November 4, 2017, after travelling to the Punjab for his wedding, with local media linking his detention to the killing of Hindu leaders in the area. He is yet to stand trial.
The international pressure for his release has been building since he turned 35 behind bars in February.
Last month, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for his release. It said there was “no judicially admissible evidence against Mr Johal, despite intelligence agencies having over three years to investigate” and the “appropriate remedy would be to release Mr Johal immediately”.
During his time in detention he has been interrogated and tortured, the UN panel said, “including using electric shocks, forcing his limbs into painful positions and depriving him of sleep”.
Boris Johnson also listened to concerns and raised the case with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the country in April, the Foreign Office has said.
In the latest effort to see Johal – above, who is known to his friends as Jaggi – released, SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes met with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Docherty-Hughes, the MP for West Dunbartonshire, pressed for action on behalf of his constituent’s family, reiterating calls for the UK Government to do more to bring an end to Johal’s detention.
Docherty-Hughes said: “This afternoon I and Jagtar’s brother had a productive meeting with the Foreign Secretary, taking time to explain the situation as we have seen it over the last four and a half years, and the Foreign Secretary listened intently to what we had to say.
“The Republic of India has a respected and independent legal system which has been the basis of a strong democracy, and we must hope that they take the findings of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention very seriously: we hope that Jagtar can be able to meet his wife and family again for the first time in so long at home in Dumbarton.”
The meeting with the Foreign Secretary was secured after Docherty-Hughes raised Johal’s case following the return to the UK of British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after six years in detention.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
