Over 100 MPs urge UK govt to secure release of British Sikh Jagtar Singh Johal

Over 100 MPs and peers have signed a letter to UK foreign secretary David Lammy demanding "quick and decisive" action to secure the immediate release of British Sikh Jagtar Singh Johal who has been detained in India since 2017.The letter, from Johal's MP Douglas McAllister, states that Johal was acquitted in one of nine cases at the district court in Moga, Punjab, on 4 March 2025 "owing to no credible evidence" and says since the same evidence is being used in another eight cases, which are under investigation by the NIA, the cases should all be dropped.The cases relate to nine murders and attacks on political and religious leaders in Punjab between 2016 and 2017. Johal is not charged with being directly involved, but is accused of funding terrorist activities and conspiring to commit a terrorist act.The letter says Johal is being held in "arbitrary detention", that he has been tortured and "forced to give a confessional statement"."The UK govt should be using all diplomatic efforts at this critical stage to ensure Johal is released on bail as soon as possible, pending the discontinuation of the other outstanding cases," the letter states and calls on Lammy to hold urgent diplomatic discussions with his Indian counterparts.Lammy has agreed to meet Jagtar's brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal, on May 8. "The Indian authorities will keep him in prison for decades if the UK govt doesn't act," Gurpreet said.Last week, Supreme Court in India declined to issue a ruling on Jagtar's seven outstanding bail applications and gave no timeframe on when they would be resolved. Reprieve deputy executive director Dan Dolan said: "For him to remain imprisoned for decades, as duplicate trials drag on in defiance of the principle of double jeopardy, would be an obscene injustice."