Brother of Jagtar Singh Johal makes plea amid 'Jaggi's' detention in India

Jagtar, who was arrested shortly after his wedding in the Punjab region, has been accused of paying £4000 into a murder plot motivated by religion and politics.

His family believe that allegation is related to his online Sikh activism through a website documenting historical violence against Sikhs in India.

After four years, a trial has yet to be held and MPs from across the party spectrum have raised grave concerns, describing his treatment as arbitrary detention.

Indian authorities have dismissed criticism and said they have the evidence they need. The UK Government says it is supporting Jagtar and his family.

Today, in a plea to the public, Gurpreet says only public pressure will lead to change.

MY brother woke up in an Indian jail cell today. He hasn’t slept in his own bed for 1500 days.

My brother is so many things – a husband, an uncle, a grandson, a friend, a blogger, a researcher, an Arsenal supporter. But he’s not a criminal and he’s not been convicted of anything. Never mind being convicted, no formal charges have been framed against him on the serious allegations alleged him by the Indian state.

Jagtar has been subjected to over 235 hearings and to date no evidence has been produced against him nor have any charges been framed on the serious allegations against him. Jagtar has been subjected to continuous adjournments by the Indian authorities.

Jagtar Singh Johal

Our whole family is being punished for something he has not been tried or convicted of and after 1500 days we are still trying to get the UK Government to use the full weight of its diplomatic power to help us bring Jagtar home. A raft of parliamentarians and expert charities agree his treatment is arbitrary detention. Why doesn’t the UK Government agree?

Those 1500 days have gone so slowly, but the world has shifted since Jagtar was abducted off the street just a fortnight after his wedding. We have since been through two prime ministers and four foreign secretaries. We have entered a global pandemic. We have hosted COP26 in Glasgow, the city where my brother was born. How much more will Jagtar miss? How much more of his life will be wasted in a cell in Delhi while ministers sit on their hands?

As a solicitor, I understand how due process works. Jagtar’s treatment is nothing like due process and to date we still have not heard a single piece of evidence against him.

Our family believes he was abducted for his nationality, his religion and his blogging about the brutality against Sikhs in India in 1984. If there is evidence against Jagtar, let us hear it; let the world hear it.

Otherwise, do the right thing and release him.

As a British national, I am genuinely shocked with how the UK Government have treated my brother’s case and our family, despite claiming to be supporting both, they have far from done so. The UK Government subjected Jagtar’s wife to her own immigration battle and wanted to remove her from the UK. Initially, the application was refused, however an appeal was granted. After hearing the arguments from the Home Office and Jagtar’s wife, the immigration judge allowed the appeal, but the Home Office appealed the decision on an error of law and astonishingly the tribunal granted permission, therefore a hearing was heard by the Upper Tribunal.

It comes as no surprise that the grounds on which the Home Office was granted permission was one that could not genuinely be relied as it was misconstrued, which allowed permission to be granted. Nonetheless the Home Office continued to pursue. It came as no surprise when the Upper Tribunal Judge found “the grounds disagree on the facts, but they are both selective and, to an extent, misleading”, accordingly the First-Tier Tribunal decision shall stand.

Whilst one would have thought that the Home Office would now stop and grant leave to remain, they decided to apply for permission to appeal to the Court of Session at the Inner House, for those that do not know, this is the highest court in Scotland.

As a family, we were astonished the UK Government is hell-bent on sending Jagtar’s wife back that they were prepared to take the matter to the Inner House, however the Upper Tribunal refused permission and finally after over a year of fighting her own battle, Jagtar’s wife was granted humanitarian protection in the UK in September 2021.

Jagtar’s wife’s plea to meet with Boris Johnson and Liz Truss was deflected to Lord Ahmad therefore this begs the question as to what exactly are they doing to seek Jagtar’s release and return.

The UK Government claims India is a “good friend”. They also state that they have raised Jagtar’s case more than 70 times but not received a “satisfactory response”. Clearly this shows that the friendship is one-sided. The UK Government must exert all of its diplomatic power on his behalf. Because if this can happen to my brother, a law-abiding newly-wed who lives for his nephews and supported me through university, it can happen to others too.

Please write to your MP and ask them to help bring arbitrarily detained Jagtar home. Ask them to tell the Prime Minister to help #FreeJaggiNow.