PM Urged to Raise Jagtar Singh Johal’s Detention During India Visit

The family of Jagtar Singh Johal has called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to use his upcoming visit to India to demand an end to the eight-year detention of the British citizen.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to travel to India on Tuesday, where he will meet his counterpart, Narendra Modi, and promote a recently signed trade agreement, valued at £4.8 billion annually for the British economy. However, Johal’s family insists that the PM should also press for his release, pointing to a series of high-profile international cases where diplomatic intervention played a decisive role.

Gurpreet Singh Johal, Jagtar’s elder brother, emphasized that the Prime Minister is in a unique position to advocate for Jagtar, given that no credible evidence has been produced against him in over eight years. “The Indians continuously prolong his detention, and if they haven’t produced the evidence in eight years, it is unlikely they ever will,” he said.

Jagtar Singh Johal, a 38-year-old Sikh activist from Dumbarton near Glasgow, was arrested in India in November 2017, shortly after his wedding. He claims to have been subjected to torture during his imprisonment, which was recognized as arbitrary detention by a United Nations panel in 2022. Although he was acquitted earlier this year in a case involving alleged financial support to a terror group, he continues to face federal charges from Indian authorities.

The family draws hope from recent cases of British citizens detained abroad. For instance, activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah was released from Egypt after six years, and the elderly couple Barbie and Peter Reynolds were freed from Taliban custody earlier this year. “I believe now is the time for Keir Starmer to use all the tools at his disposal to bring Jagtar back home,” Gurpreet said.

Jagtar maintains regular phone contact with his family, including his wife Gurpreet Kaur, but his brother highlighted the psychological strain of prolonged incarceration. “When the whole family is together and Jagtar is not there, his absence is always felt. There’s a space, an emptiness, especially when he should be home with his family,” Gurpreet explained.

The legal campaign group Reprieve, which has supported the family throughout Johal’s detention, has also urged the Prime Minister to leverage his upcoming meetings with Indian officials. Dan Dolan, Reprieve’s deputy director, highlighted the flawed legal process Johal has endured, describing it as “Kafkaesque,” with multiple duplicate trials based on the same unproven allegations and torture “confessions.”

“At the current rate, these cases could take decades to resolve. Jagtar has already lost eight years of his life to this deeply unjust process,” Dolan said. “Diplomacy at the highest level is often the only factor that can make a difference in such situations. The Prime Minister’s face-to-face meeting with Narendra Modi is a rare opportunity that must be used to secure Jagtar’s release and reunite him with his family.”

Ahead of the visit, Johal’s family has also initiated legal proceedings to investigate whether British intelligence had any role in his detention. A Foreign Office spokesperson stated, “We continue to raise concerns about Mr Johal’s prolonged detention with the Government of India at every opportunity. The Foreign Secretary will shortly meet with Mr Johal’s brother to discuss the ongoing situation.”

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