MORE than 6000 people have signed an online petition in just two days calling for Home Secretary Priti Patel to resign or for Boris Johnson to sack her.

The petition follows the dismissal of an appeal for the extradition of three men – known as the West Midlands Three – by the Indian government, over the high-profile murder of Rulda Singh, leader of a political group in India, who was shot dead there in 2009.

Last week the case at Westminster Magistrates Court was dismissed because of a lack of evidence, after which human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce said: “It is an extraordinarily serious matter that a [Indian] government, knowing that the evidence it has, can go against three men in another country with the hope to obtain their extradition to India.”

Edward Fitzgerald QC, representing one of the three, said the extradition request was “made on the basis of wholly unsubstantiated allegations”.

Mankamal Singh, a London born Sikh who is an advisor to The Sikh Network, said what the Indian government did not tell the court was that there had already been trials over the alleged murder with different suspects in India who had all been acquitted.

“The judgments in those cases even said that the same evidence produced, again and again, had been fabricated, witnesses were coerced and they also did not say what the prosecution claimed they had said,” he said.

Pierce commented: “How can it be that the prosecutors can try and try and try again on the same discredited evidence?

“In some ways, it’s a disappointment that this case has finished in this court without the defence evidence being heard.”

The case has already led to Preet Kaur Gill, ahair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, demanding answers from Patel over concerns that the extradition request had been certified despite the previous investigations and no credible new evidence.

Mankamal Singh added: “The reality of the past few years, with the incarceration of British born Jagtar (Jaggi) Singh Johal in India and disinclination by the Foreign Secretary to engage with the family, demonstrates the current Conservative Government has come to believe that those who advocate for Sikh rights are a fringe that can be persecuted without fear of a community backlash.

“The horrific treatment of Jagtar Singh Johal and the West Midlands Three is being interpreted as a ‘diplomatic gift’ from the UK to India to boost post-Brexit trade relations.

“This is not the first time that British Sikhs have felt that they can be used by the Government as a political pawn with impunity.”

Jaggi Singh – a Scot – was "kidnapped" by Indian authorities while shopping with his wife more than 1400 days ago.

He is still in jail, pending trial and facing a potential death sentence over a confession he said was signed under torture, including electrocution.

UN agencies have petitioned the Indian government over his treatment and two international charities have taken up his case.

Although most of the signatories to the petition are from the Sikh community, updates to the petition show increasing support from non-Sikhs, including from Jennifer Horwood, who wrote: “Priti Patel is unfit to hold such high office,” and Phillipa Thornton, who added: “Priti Patel should not be part of any government with her extreme right wing views.”

The online petition can be viewed here.