UK – The Guardian, September 18, 2024
Delhi’s high court has denied bail to the British activist Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been imprisoned in India for nearly seven years, in seven cases brought against him by the country’s National Investigations Agency.
The ruling has shocked family and supporters who claim it should jolt the British government into recognising that Johal is not receiving justice at the hands of the Indian legal system.
The court acknowledged that his trials have been severely delayed but ruled this was not sufficient grounds to grant bail, according to Reprieve, the human rights organisation that has been fighting against his long detention without trail.
Johal, 37, from Dumbarton in Scotland, was arrested in connection with targeted killing cases in Punjab in 2016 and 2017. It is alleged that these offences were part of a conspiracy by the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), an organisationthe Indian police allege Johal was a member of.
Johal had previously been bailed in two cases. In March 2022, the high court of Punjab and Haryana granted bail on the basis that Johal had been imprisoned without trial for five years and that this violated his right to access to justice.
In August 2023, in an appeal filed by the National Investigations Agency to the March 2022 order, India’s supreme court challenged prosecutors to present credible evidence against him, and as they were unable to do so, upheld the lower court’s order granting bail.
As a result, Wednesday’s ruling appears to be directly at odds with the supreme court’s 2023 order, meaning the latest high court ruling could be subject to challenge in the supreme court.
