Brother of Scot detained in India on terror charges hails 'encouraging' meeting with foreign secretary

Jagtar Singh Johal, a Sikh activist from Dumbarton in West Dunbartonshire, was arrested after attending his wedding in Punjab in northern India in November 2017, since which time he has been held over alleged terror offences in the country.

The 37 year-old claims to have been beaten and tortured by Indian police, alleging officers  attached electrodes to his ear, nipples and genitals, and threatened to burn him alive. The United Nations working group on arbitrary detention has said there is no legal basis for Mr Johal's continued detention.

On Wednesday, Mr Johal’s brother, Gurpreet, met with Foreign Secretary David Lammy for the first time since Labour entered government. Gurpreet, a councillor in West Dunbartonshire, said the meeting saw discussions take place around solutions over how to bring Mr Johal back to Scotland.

“Our plan has always been to find a way to bring Jagtar back home, but there was never that engagement from the government,” he told The Scotsman. “What we have this time round is that engagement to take our solutions forward of how to bring Jagtar home. It’s a starting point of being on the same page.”

“We’ve given them our solutions which they can review and discuss with relevant advisors, before coming back to the table. That’s the encouraging and positive part of the whole meeting, but it doesn’t mean we let the government off. We still need to hold them to account until Jagtar is back.”

Indian officials have claimed Mr Johal was involved in a plot to murder a Hindu nationalist leader, but he and his family have long maintained his innocence, and say he was subjected to a coerced confession before being confronted with a slew of further charges. 

In September, Mr Johal was denied bail in seven cases brought against him by India’s national investigations agency. According to Reprieve, which has mounted a longstanding campaign for the Scot’s release, Delhi High Court acknowledged that the trials had been severely delayed, but ruled that such delays did not amount to sufficient grounds to grant bail. 

In another apparent sign of progress, Gurpreet, who is scheduled to hold further meetings with Scottish Labour MPs on Thursday, added that for the first time in his meetings with government officials, representatives from Reprieve were allowed to be present.

Mr Lammy visited India in July, when he said he was raising the case with his Indian counterpart. While in opposition, the Labour MP wrote on social media that the Scot had been held in prison “without due process” and detained “with no legal basis.” 

Last month, Gurpreet met with First Minister John Swinney, who said he was “gravely concerned” for Mr Johal amid the allegations of his mistreatment and torture in custody, and joined calls for his immediate release. 

Dan Dolan, Reprieve’s director of advocacy and policy, said: “The foreign secretary and prime minister both took strong, principled positions on Jagtar’s case in opposition, recognising that he is arbitrarily detained and saying the government should seek his release. We’re calling on them to honour those commitments.”