Jagtar Singh Johal (Pictured above) had his 151st trial hearing and has been acquitted due to a total lack of evidence in the one case that has seen any progress.  

The other remaining cases are linked and are expected to be dropped after a court application. 

There have been claims that the Indian authorities tortured Jagtar and threatened to burn him alive while in custody.  

However, despite forcing to give them a confessional statement more than 7 years after abducting and torturing him they have failed to produce a shred of credible evidence against him.

The court verdict today reinforces he has been in arbitrary detention in an Indian jail since 4 November 2017 that has been accepted by the UK Government after UN experts declared this three years ago.

Reacting to the news of Jagtar’s acquittal Dabinderjit Singh OBE, the Sikh Federation UK’s Lead Executive for Political Engagement said: “Jagtar’s acquittal today due to a lack of credible evidence is a massive step forward to get him released and back home to the UK to be reunited with his family.”

It opens up the way for all the other charges against him to be dropped. This should now be a formality and must happen as soon as possible as Jagtar has already lost 7 years of his life.”

He added: “The UK Government need to keep up pressure and prepare to get him home quickly so he can be with his family and begin to enjoy married life.”

Today’s decision is a vindication for all those that have campaigned tirelessly for his release and return as they knew he was innocent and being arbitrarily detained in an Indian jail.”

To keep up the pressure on the UK Government to stand up for British citizens arbitrarily detained in India we started a Parliamentary e-petition in December titled: Secure the release and return of British nationals arbitrarily detained in India.

Constituents for over 500 MPs have signed the e-petition.  13 MPs (9 Labour, 3 Conservative and 1 independent) have already had over 100 constituents sign the e-petition and we have written to them to take specific actions.  

We also wrote to all 400 plus Labour MPs on the 15th of January and 25th of February to ensure the UK Government keep up diplomatic pressure to get Jagtar released and back to the UK.  We know many Labour MPs have taken up Jagtar’s case with the Foreign Secretary.