Jagtar Singh Johal

Jagtar Singh Johal is a British Sikh from Dumbarton, Scotland. India held him from November 2017 until 1 October 2026, nearly nine years, on charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that he denies. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary. He remains an accused, and bail is not an acquittal. He is a living person: the allegations below are those of Indian agencies, and the claims of ill-treatment are his and his lawyers'.

Who he is. The rights group Redress describes him as a Sikh faith activist and blogger who criticised alleged human rights violations against Sikhs by the Indian government. He travelled to India on 2 October 2017 to marry.

The charges and the dispute. India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) alleges that Johal belongs to the Khalistan Liberation Force and played a key role in moving £3,000 to the group's founder, money the NIA says paid for targeted killings of right-wing Hindu leaders in Ludhiana and Jalandhar in 2016 and 2017. He denies involvement. India's counter-terrorism agency says the charges rest on “extensive evidence”, and Indian authorities deny that he was ill-treated. Redress, which supports him, says men seized him from his car in Jalandhar on 4 November 2017, hooded him and drove him away without showing a warrant; that police formally recorded his custody on 5 November; and that he was tortured between 4 and 9 November with electric shocks, forced positions and sleep deprivation, and made to sign blank paper that was later used as a confession. It says IRCT experts found “reasonable grounds” in November 2019 to believe he was tortured.

Key moments

• 19 November 2021: the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopts Opinion 80/2021, reported in May 2022. It finds that his detention has no legal basis, is arbitrary and rests on discriminatory grounds linked to his faith, activism and status as a human rights defender, and calls for his release and compensation.
• August 2022: his lawyers at Leigh Day file a claim in the UK High Court alleging that MI5, MI6 and GCHQ contributed to his detention and torture by sharing intelligence with India. Redress says the case is continuing.
• 4 March 2025: a court in Moga acquits him in the first of nine cases to reach a verdict. The prosecution called 56 witnesses and “failed to prove case beyond doubt”, The Tribune reports; Redress says the court found prosecutors had “miserably failed to prove” the offences. Eight cases remain, which Redress and Reprieve say rest on the same alleged confession.
• 22 April 2026: ten UN experts say his prolonged detention “is a form of psychological torture” and a profound miscarriage of justice, and ask India to withdraw the remaining charges and release him.
• 18 September 2026: the Delhi High Court grants bail in the seven cases where he did not already have it. It cites a slow trial, with 40 witnesses heard and 123 still to testify, and gives “persuasive value” to the Moga acquittal. Conditions include surrendering his passport and not sharing “anti-national” material online.
• 1 October 2026: he walks out of Tihar jail in Delhi. His brother says the family will keep fighting until he is home; he still faces eight cases, including conspiracy to murder.

Remembered for. Johal's case became a UK political issue. In 2023 seventy British MPs urged the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to seek his release, and Scottish MP Douglas McAllister welcomed the bail order. India's position, as its counter-terrorism agency states it, is that the evidence against him is extensive and that his rights were respected.