SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes has called on David Cameron to secure the release of 35-year-old Dumbarton man Jagtar Singh Johal from an Indian jail and a possible death penalty.
Docherty-Hughes has also tabled a motion in the Commons urging the UK Government to pause its trade deal negotiations with India until the arbitrary detention is ended.
“The immovable position of the British government on the arbitrary detention of my constituent flies in the face of senior political and legal opinion,” he said. “Their decision is clearly based on their frantic post-Brexit desire for a trade deal with India at the expense of a UK citizen’s rights.
“After six years with such flimsy evidence, it’s now time for Jagtar to come home and for his government to demand it.”
He added that Cameron should meet with Jagtar’s family and himself to assure them the case would be given the political attention they were initially promised.
Three senior lawyers have also now spoken out about Jagtar’s plight, criticising the UK government’s handling of the case. In a letter jointly signed by Ken Macdonald KC, Elish Angiolini KC and Jim Wallace KC, the trio expressed concerns that Jagtar was being denied due process in India amid evidence of torture and arbitrary detention.
Human Rights charity Reprieve has joined the call for Cameron to secure Jagtar’s release.
“It’s been six years since Jagtar Singh Johal was abducted and tortured in India where he faces a possible death sentence for something he didn’t do,” said a spokesperson.
“Throughout that time, successive foreign ministers have lacked the political will to secure his release, ignoring the facts of his case and demonstrating an alarming reluctance to seek the release of arbitrarily detained citizens overseas.
“David Cameron will be the sixth foreign secretary to work on Jagtar’s case. It’s time he leveraged his standing and relationships to finally resolve the case and bring Jagtar home to his family.”
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An investigation by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that there was no legal basis for Jagtar’s detention in India, citing multiple violations of his human rights – including claims he was tortured into signing a false confession through electric shocks to his ear lobes, nipples, and genitals.
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims has also said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe he was tortured into a false confession that he was plotting a Sikh-on-Hindu assassination.
Jagtar was detained after travelling to India for his wedding in 2017. Three weeks later, while shopping with his wife, he was abducted off the street, hooded with a sack, and bundled into a police car and remanded in police custody. For 10 days, he was held incommunicado and not allowed to see a lawyer, his family members, or a representative of the British High Commission.
In his letter to Cameron, who was brought back from the political wilderness to become Foreign Secretary last week, Docherty-Hughes pointed out that there had been no noticeable consequences for Indian “intransigence” on the case with the UK Government instead proceeding “full steam ahead” to secure a trade agreement.
“While there has been an overwhelming range of legal opinion which points towards Jagtar being arbitrarily detained, the UK Government appears to be one of the few actors unwilling to acknowledge this fact,” he said.
The Foreign Office was approached for comment.
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