Westminster force visa battle on Jagtar Singh Johal's wife

While he remains in a cell in Delhi, she has been refused the right to stay in Scotland with her in-laws.

She arrived in the UK last year for talks with then-foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt and subsequently applied for permission to remain in the UK.

But last Saturday she received an official letter explaining that while she has a “unique” set of circumstances, officials will not allow her to live in Scotland.

That’s despite fears over her safety in India, where she wed Jagtar just two weeks before his November 2017 arrest.

Jaggi at his wedding, just two weeks before his arrest

Authorities said they had everything needed to convict him of involvement in an international conspiracy behind the assassination of the leader of right-wing Hindu group. Ravinder Gosain, head of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was shot dead by two armed attackers in October 2017.

But Jagtar, an internet marketer, denies funding any plot and his family believe he has been targeted over his nationality and blogging about the bloody pogroms of 1984, in which at least 2700 Indian Sikhs were killed.

More than two years and approaching 200 court appearances later, no evidence has been heard against the keep-fit fan and his claims of torture at the hands of Punjab police have never been assessed, despite pressure from the UN and international legal charity Redress.

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A handwritten letter containing those claims also included alleged threats by authorities against Gurpreet. “Orders were given to arrest my wife”, Jaggi wrote, along with claims of electrocution and other violent treatment.

Gurpreet, 31, has never allowed her name to be reported in the media before. She has allowed the Sunday National to reveal her identity as she takes on the Home Office over her future and slams the UK Government for “not doing enough to help” her husband.

Gurpreet says Hunt gave her “hope” for progress, but the visa refusal puts her at risk and adds to the hardship already facing Jaggi and his Dumbarton family.

Three generations of the Johals live together in the West Dunbartonshire town, where Gurpreet helps support his grandparents and plays with his young nephews.

Gurpreet Kaur with her young nephews who have joined the fight for their 'chachi'

Both the eldest, who turned nine on Thursday, and the youngest, just six, have penned letters to the Home Office urging it to let their “chachi” (father’s brother’s wife) stay.

Supported by a leading solicitor, their chachi has launched a legal challenge to the refusal. Damir Duheric, who practices in Edinburgh, was the first specialist on immigration to be accredited by the Law Society of Scotland.

He told the Sunday National he’s never heard of a case quite like hers, a claim supported by Gurpreet Singh Johal, the immigration solicitor brother of Jagtar.

“I’ve seen nothing like this in my career or in case law,” said the father-of-two, who has accused Westminster of putting post-Brexit trade deals ahead of his brother’s welfare.

India, a growing economic powerhouse, is amongst the Government’s targets as it attempts to make stronger alliances outwith the EU ahead of December 31, when the Brexit transition period ends.

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“Immigration is and has always been highly political and this case is one of those cases where government politics are playing a big role,” said Duheric, originally from Bosnia.

“The case is unique in my view. The Home Office accept that exceptionality but yet says ‘we’re sending you back home and it doesn’t breach your human rights’.

“There are all kinds of issues here.”

Gurpreet, who has asked us not to show her face, had been married for only two weeks when Jagtar was bundled into a vehicle by plain clothes police as they shopped in a Punjab town in November 2017.

The manner of the arrest meant relatives initially feared he had been abducted by a gang targeting Westerners.

Gurpreet says she does not want to live away from Jagtar, but his transfer to a prison eight hours from her home means staying in India is of little help to him.

As well as urging her to stay in Scotland, he has written to the Home Office in support of her application.

“I know that it’s right for me to be with my husband, but there is a threat of me being in trouble”, Gurpreet says. “In India, all my life would be spent on the road going for eight hours to see my husband for even half an hour, and even then there’s no guarantee I’d actually get to see him.

“He said knowing that I’m here and safe gives him peace of mind.

“The UK Government hasn’t done much for Jagtar and his case but they could make it easier for the family by granting me a visa.”

But the chance that they won’t is having a serious impact on her mental health, she says. She rarely leaves home without her sister-in-law Mandip Kaur and says she now feels like she “doesn’t want to live” because life will be “hell” if she has to live in India.

WHILE the Home Office has suggested she apply for asylum, taking on refugee status would mean she is unable to visit her home country for as long as seven years under any circumstances, including the death of a loved one or to support Jagtar in court.

And legal opinion is that such a claim would not be successful.

Gurpreet says she had “high hopes” of progress in Jagtar’s case after the Hunt meeting, but the visa rejection means she now has little faith in Westminster to help.

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“The UK Government knows what has happened, the Prime Minister knows, but it’s still been refused,” she said. “I don’t understand. Two years and Jagtar has still not been formally charged. If there was a case against him, it should have been out by now. How long is this going to go on?

“Every girl has dreams, I have dreams. It’s hard, my husband is sitting in a jail. Our lives have been put on hold.”

The Foreign Office says it is supporting Jagtar and his family.

In 2017, then-Foreign Office minister Rory Stewart vowed there would be “extreme action” if the torture claims were proven true.

However, a request to meet the current Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has been turned down and the family say there has been little action at all, a position supported by their MP Martin Docherty-Hughes.

MP Martin Docherty-Hughes (left) has been campaigning for Jaggi's release for two years

He has called on authorities in both states to ensure Jagtar faces a fair trial and says the whole family has been “adversely affected by Jagtar’s arbitrary detention”.

“Given the difficult and unique circumstances of the case, the family are understandably disappointed that Gurpreet’s visa application has been denied,” he commented.

“All too often the UK Home Office’s approach to visa applications lacks compassion, humanity and common sense. As the family’s local MP I’ll do all I can to ensure their appeal is treated fairly so they can have some much-needed certainty at this difficult time.”

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THE family is also supported by community advocacy group Sikhs in Scotland. Its executive director Charandeep Singh says there is “a huge amount of concern” amongst Sikhs in the UK about the case and “the overall direction policies in India are taking” under the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, who has been accused of trying to divide the country along religious lines through the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Modi, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, says the law will protect minorities by fast-tracking the citizenship of Indian residents from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, as long as they are not Muslim. Critics say that will further marginalise that group.

Singh also believes Brexit is affecting the UK Government’s handling of Jagtar’s case, and says it “doesn’t take a genius to work out that if Jagtar is still being detained without a fair trial” there can be no guarantees about Gurpreet’s position there.

“We are looking for the UK Government to be bold and use whatever it can to support the family,” he says. A Home Office spokesperson said: “Each immigration application is considered on its individual merits and on a case-by-case basis.”