THE nightmare for Jagtar Singh Johal and his family began shortly after celebrating his wedding in Punjab.
As he prepared to return to Scotland with his wife, his car was forced off the road by a group of men, he was arrested by plain clothes officers and accused of being involved with a Sikh extremist group.
For more than five years Johal – known as Jaggi - has been in jail awaiting trial and facing a potential death sentence under India’s anti-terror laws.
Campaigners including human rights organisations Redress and Reprieve and his MP Martin Docherty-Hughes, have long called for his release, and urged the UK Government to take action to help secure his freedom.
Now it has emerged UK intelligence agencies have been accused of sharing information about Johal with the Indian Government which ultimately led to his arrest.
Here we look at how the case has unfolded and some of the key developments over the past five years.
October 2017
Johal, who is from Dumbarton, marries his wife Gurpreet Kau in a lavish ceremony attended by more than 1000 people in Jalandhar, Punjab. The couple fell for each other after being introduced by family members as part of an arranged marriage.
November 2017
According to details later revealed in a UN report, Johal is abducted by 15 unidentified men, with a hood placed on his head. He is pulled into an unmarked police van, and the men fail to identify themselves as police officers or state why he is being taken.
His older brother Gurpreet later told how he had learned the news in a frantic early-morning call and initially feared his sibling had been abducted by a gang.
For the next four days after his arrest, the police interrogate and torture Johal, including “using electric shocks, forcing his limbs into painful positions and depriving him of sleep”, according to the UN report. He is also forced to “sign blank papers”.
November 2018
A year on from his arrest and after 60 court appearances, no evidence has been led against Johal.
His family speak out to mark the anniversary, renewing appeals to the Scottish and UK Government to intervene in the case.
His wife Gurpreet, who has remained in India while fearing for her own safety, tells how they get to meet just once a week in a meeting which is sometimes only 10 minutes.
“After having my dream wedding, I was looking forward to spending time with my husband,” she says. “Instead I have had to spend months in hiding, separated from him."
April 2019
After months of asking to meet Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the case, Johal’s family finally secure a meeting. Hunt tweets that “Foreign and Commonwealth staff in the UK and India have been and will continue to do all they can to support Jagtar and his family”.
February 2021
Nearly 140 MPs and peers – SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, former Brexit secretary David Davis, former international development secretary Hilary Benn and father of the house Sir Peter Bottomley - write to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urging him to do more to secure the release of Johal.
The letter states: “When a British national is arbitrarily detained, tortured, and faces a potential death sentence, all on the basis of trumped-up political charges, the British government must make clear this is unacceptable. This is a moment for the UK to take a stand and bring this young British man home.”
August 2021
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets with Johal’s family and offers the support of the Scottish Government. She writes to Raab in her first formal intervention on the case, urging him to personally meet Johal’s family.
November 2021
Johal’s wife pleads for the UK Government to intervene in the case in an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson marking four years since her husband’s detention.
She said: “Today marks 4 years since that terrifying day when the police snatched and kidnapped Jaggi from my arms. I still have nightmares of that day and the subsequent torture of Jaggi.
“The UK government must listen and act to secure the release and return of my husband after 4 years of incarceration.”
She added: “All I want and pray for is that my husband comes back home and we can start our life together, but I worry for his and my mental and physical health due to all this suffering.”
May 2022
A report published by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a body of independent human rights experts, concludes there is no legal basis for his continued imprisonment.
It calls for his immediate release, saying the “continued pre-trial detention of Johal lacks legal basis and is arbitrary”.
The report states Johal was targeted because of his “activities as a Sikh practitioner and supporter and because of his activism in writing public posts calling for accountability for alleged actions committed against Sikhs by the authorities”.
June 2022
Boris Johnson states for the first time that the Indian government is arbitrarily detaining Johal, in a letter to Keir Starmer. His brother Gurpreet hails the admission as a breakthrough but questions why it has taken so long.
July 2022
Johal is formally charged with conspiracy to murder and being a member of the Khalistan Liberation Force, a banned terrorist gang.
