Scottish activist Jagtar Singh Johal’s ‘seven wasted years’ in an Indian prison

It is greater than seven years since Jagtar Singh Johal used to be snatched from the bustling streets of Jalandhar in northern India.

The younger Sikh activist, from Dumbarton within the west of Scotland, were visiting the state of Punjab to have fun his marriage ceremony.

However as he walked during the busy streets and crowded markets on 4 November 2017, he used to be surrounded by means of officials from the native police drive.

His circle of relatives say he used to be grabbed, a hood used to be positioned over his head and he used to be pressured right into a car in vast sunlight.

He used to be taken into custody – the place he has remained ever since.

Jagtar has now not been convicted of any crimes, and used to be this week acquitted within the first of 9 instances towards him.

The Indian govt says that he is a perilous terrorist who helped plan the killings of 7 folks.

However his circle of relatives says he is an blameless guy who has been tortured by means of his jailers, and there are rising requires the 38-year-old to be launched and allowed to go back house after the “seven-year nightmare”.

The costs he faces vary from club of a terrorist gang to conspiracy to homicide, yet in every of the instances his alleged process is identical.

The prosecution says Jagtar used to be documenting the violence towards Sikhs within the Punjab area all through the bloodshed of the mid-Nineteen Eighties via his web site, yet that his activism went additional.

It says that via his paintings at the web site he made hyperlinks with figures intent on destabilising India via violence.

It says that during 2013 Jagtar travelled to Paris and passed over about £3,000 to participants of the Khalistan Liberation Pressure (KLF), an armed organisation which has performed violent assaults in pursuit of a putative Sikh place of birth known as Khalistan.

It says this cash used to be used to buy guns that have been then utilized in acts of terrorism within the Punjab, specifically the focused killings of 7 Hindu and different spiritual and political leaders, and the tried homicide of every other all through a in particular unstable duration within the area throughout 2016 and 2017.

That the violence happened isn’t in dispute.

What’s much less transparent is the function that this guy from Dumbarton, with out a felony historical past, could have performed in it.

Jagtar’s brother Gurpreet at first concept his brother were kidnapped, earlier than finding out that he used to be within the custody of the Punjab Police.

Within the following days, Gurpreet realized that Jagtar used to be accused of being an energetic member of a fear cellular – and that he claimed he were tortured in his cellular.

A handwritten notice handed from Jagtar to his defence legal professional detailed how he’d been crushed and subjected to electrical shocks, and the way officials entered his cellular with a petroleum container and threatened to burn him alive, earlier than coercing him to signal a clean piece of paper.

Gurpreet’s worry for his brother best grew when, in December 2017, a video seemed appearing Jagtar in a police cellular, allegedly confessing to his function in a sequence of killings within the Punjab area.

Gurpreet started a marketing campaign to loose his brother, telling politicians and the media that Jagtar used to be a relaxed activist who were falsely implicated.

For seven years Jagtar has waited for growth to be made within the more than a few instances towards him and his 8 co-accused.

8 of the instances were introduced by means of the Indian govt’s counter-terror department, the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA).

There were loads of hearings, beset by means of procedural delays, as every trial grinds its manner during the courts in Delhi.

Jagtar’s representatives from the criminal charity Reprieve have criticised the method as unfair and say no “credible” proof has been offered towards Jagtar.

They are saying his confession is coerced, got via torture and due to this fact inadmissible as proof.

However now the 9th case, within the District Court docket of Moga, Punjab, has in the end equipped some readability on this murky and intriguing tale.

After seven years, we in the end gained a verdict.

Pass judgement on Harjeet Singh discovered that the prosecution “has failed to assemble cogent and convincing proof… relating to participation of the accused in illegal actions or in a different way”.

He mentioned it had additionally “failed to steer any proof that the accused have been participants of [a] 15 may organization”.

And he mentioned: “The prosecution has miserably did not turn out the fee of the [conspiracy] offences by means of the entire accused.

“Thus, the entire accused are at risk of be acquitted.”

The entire fees of conspiracy, elevating finances for a terrorist gang, and club of a terrorist gang have been rejected.

Jagtar used to be acquitted of the entire fees towards him on this case.

3 of his co-accused have been discovered accountable of gun ownership and given two-year sentences. They have got already spent seven years in prison.

However why did it take years to succeed in this level – and what does the acquittal imply for the opposite instances towards Jagtar, who remains to be being held in a most safety jail in Delhi?

To grasp this we want to have a look at the proof which did make it into court docket.

DSP Balwinder Singh used to be one of the vital officials who arrested Jagtar in November 2017.

The judgement tells us that during his proof DSP Singh “admitted that no incriminating article/factor/record [was] recovered from Jagtar Singh Johal on this case, all through his investigation and no documentary proof used to be produced or within the report relating to hyperlinks of alternative accused with Jagtar Singh Johal all through his investigation”.

At the central allegation that Jagtar travelled to Paris handy over cash to participants of the KLF, the judgement says that DSP Singh may just now not inform the date, month and yr of that consult with.

“He admitted that all through his investigation, no subject material within the form of letter heads or emblem of KLF or another banned group… used to be recovered from the accused,” mentioned the pass judgement on.

“This reasons a significant dent relating to the prosecution.”

The opposite arresting officer’s proof used to be that “not anything incriminating” used to be recovered from Jagtar on the time of his arrest or afterwards.

Most likely probably the most curious testimony got here from witness Kanwaljit Singh, a assets broker who gave a police commentary pronouncing that he used to be visited by means of Jagtar and every other accused within the spring of 2017.

He mentioned Jagtar advised him that he had gathered finances to hold out assaults on “hardline Hindu leaders” within the Punjab.

However, in step with the pass judgement on, “cautious scrutiny of the statements presentations that no reliance can also be put on” his proof.

At Jagtar’s trial, Kanwaljit Singh admitted that he himself had prior to now been energetic in an armed Sikh team, had served time in prison and, most significantly, that he had by no means met Jagtar or the opposite guy who he had put within the body along with his police commentary.

He mentioned he had approached the police after studying about Jagtar in a newspaper following his arrest.

This is only one witness in a case which Jagtar’s criminal representatives from Reprieve say is characterized by means of unreliable, even tainted, testimony.

They level to the commentary given by means of a distinct guy which they are saying is “nearly equivalent, phrase for phrase” to the commentary given by means of Kanwaljit Singh.

The prosecution failed to supply this guy in court docket and now say he’s useless, so he can’t discuss to his commentary.

Reprieve alleges that those males are “inventory witnesses” – folks improperly influenced or coerced by means of the government into giving proof in a case.

The organisation’s caseworkers additionally highlighted the confession commentary of Harmeet Singh Mintoo, the previous KLF chief whom Jagtar allegedly met in Paris.

Mintoo retracted this commentary and died in jail earlier than he may just end difficult it during the courts.

Reprieve says different witnesses within the case have in a similar way retracted the statements they gave to police when showing to offer proof at trial, with some even attesting their statements were falsified.

The prosecution’s case incorporated an elaborate forged of characters, conferences and plots from the United Kingdom, throughout Europe and into Pakistan and India, culminating within the grisly murders of 7 folks.

On this one case no less than, no proof has been discovered for any of it.

Reprieve’s meantime deputy government director, Dan Dolan, says the case towards Jagtar used to be “absurdly susceptible from the beginning”.

“Seven years of his lifestyles were wasted, with complaints dragging out, when it used to be undeniable all alongside that there used to be by no means any forged proof,” he advised the BBC.

“The method is the punishment – the instances are not more than a skinny excuse to stay him in prison.”

The rest instances towards Jagtar are scheduled to be heard in Delhi, in a distinct court docket. The prospective punishments are a lot more serious, together with the demise penalty, within the match of conviction.

They’re introduced by means of the NIA beneath India’s Illegal Actions Prevention Act, which exists to clamp down on any process which would possibly “threaten the harmony, integrity, safety or sovereignty of India, or to strike terror in folks or any segment of folks of India”.

Its critics say this is a draconian regulation which is able to label folks as terrorists with out due procedure, and which is disproportionately used towards minorities within the nation.

There could also be prone to be proof from “secure witnesses” within the NIA’s instances, whose complete identities don’t seem to be recognized. Reprieve says their statements have now not equipped to any extent further proof past what used to be heard within the Moga case the place Jagtar used to be acquitted.

Nonetheless, Reprieve argues that since the allegations towards Jagtar in each and every case are “all-but equivalent”, the Moga verdict must imply his acquittal in the entire others too.

Dan Dolan says it is now over to the United Kingdom govt to safe Jagtar’s free up.

In the meantime, in an obvious strengthening of its place, a UK govt minister mentioned in parliament this week that Jagtar’s free up “must occur urgently”.

Gurpreet, who has restricted touch along with his brother over video calls, continues to reside in hope.

“To be vindicated in court docket is a smart feeling,” he mentioned.

“Jagtar’s smile and spark are again. He spoke to our dad for best the 3rd time in seven years the day gone by and so they have been in prime spirits because of the acquittal.

“Ministers are pronouncing the entire proper issues yet what counts is motion. This judgement can also be the start of the tip of our circle of relatives’s seven-year nightmare, if the federal government acts now.”

This week a spokesperson for the Overseas, Commonwealth and Building Administrative center (FCDO) welcomed the growth within the case.

“The United Kingdom govt stays dedicated to running for quicker growth on Jagtar’s case, and the FCDO proceed to paintings to enhance Mr Johal and his circle of relatives,” it mentioned.

The Indian govt has now not spoke back to a request for remark at the verdict within the Moga case, yet has prior to now mentioned that due procedure has been adopted within the case.

The Indian government have additionally prior to now denied the allegations of torture.