David Lammy urged to use India trip to call for release of Jagtar Singh Johal

A group of Sikh activists in the UK have urged the new Foreign Secretary to use his maiden voyage to secure freedom for the jailed Briton.

Mr Johal at his 2017 wedding in India shortly before he was detained for ‘influencing the youth through social media’, as per a Sikh group (Family handout/PA) (PA Media)

A leading UK Sikh action group has called on the Foreign Secretary to use his first trip to India next week to push for the release of detained British citizen Jagtar Singh Johal.

Mr Johal, from Dumbarton, Scotland, was in Punjab in northern India for his wedding in 2017 when his family said he was arrested and bundled into an unmarked car.

He is said to have been tortured, including with electric shocks, and faces the death penalty as a result of his campaigning for Sikh rights.

Principal adviser of the Sikh Federation UK, Dabinderjit Singh, said his action group has been rallying officials in the newly-appointed Labour Government and staff within the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to push for Mr Johal’s return to the UK ahead of David Lammy’s visit.

“The visit represents an opportunity to push for Jagtar’s release and return,” Mr Singh said.

Mr Singh referenced comments made in 2022 by then-Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who urged then-prime minister Boris Johnson to request Mr Johal’s release.

According to the BBC, Sir Keir wrote: “When a UK national has been so gravely mistreated, with no legal basis, the UK Government must act decisively to negotiate their release.”

In letters reportedly seen by The Guardian, Mr Johnson agreed the Indian government had arbitrarily detained Mr Johal since 2017, however, the UK government did not formally request his return to British soil.

Mr Singh said: “This acknowledgement by the prime minister should have resulted in the UK Government following its own policy of calling for Jagtar’s immediate release and return to the UK as is the case for all British subjects held in arbitrary detention in another country.”

He also said the Sikh Federation UK has written to Mr Lammy to express the “British Sikh community expect better from a Labour Government given the commitments Keir Starmer has given to Jagtar’s family and public statements while in Opposition”.

Mr Singh added: “We have reminded David Lammy of his address to FCDO staff on July 10 when he reiterated, he would ‘stand up for the rule of law at home and abroad’ as without it we cannot have security.”

In 2022, A United Nations panel on arbitrary detention acknowledged Mr Johal had been arbitrarily detained in India.

Mr Lammy’s predecessor, Lord David Cameron, earlier this year urged the Indian Government to “speed up” Mr Johal’s case, but stopped short of calling for his release.