RISHI Sunak said he wants to ensure “justice is done” in the case of detained Scot Jagtar Singh Johal - but refused to commit to lobbying the Indian Prime Minister about the case.
Johal, who is also known as "Jaggi", is a Sikh blogger from Dumbarton. He was in Punjab in northern India for his wedding in 2017 when his family said he was arrested and bundled into an unmarked car.
He faces the death penalty over his activism and campaigning for Sikh human rights and claims to have been tortured, including with electric shocks, during his time in prison.
Rishi Sunak is due to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in New Delhi this week.
Ahead of the trip, a cross-party group of at least 70 MPs, according to the Sikh Federation, wrote to Sunak calling on him to press the Hindu nationalist leader to “immediately release” Johal.
It comes after Foreign Secretary James Cleverly wrote to Johal’s brother in July to say the Government had decided it was best not to press India over the issue, the BBC reported.
Asked by reporters on the plane to New Delhi whether he would raise Johal’s case with Modi, the Prime Minister said: “Both the Foreign Secretary and Foreign Office ministers have raised this case on multiple occasions with their counterparts.
“We understand what his family are going through and want to make sure that the process works and that justice is done appropriately as well.”
Pressed again on whether Johal’s situation would be part of his bilateral discussion, Sunak replied: “I’ll be raising a range of things with Prime Minister Modi.
“This is something that, just so people are reassured, has already been raised on multiple levels on multiple occasions.”
