UK – Express, Dec. 12, 2025
Scotsman Jagtar Singh Johal has been a prisoner without trial since November 2017 when he was snatched of the street in India.
The family of a British man held captive abroad for eight years without trial have blasted Labour and Sir Keir Starmer for “falling short” after having “done nothing” to bring him home. Scottish blogger Jagtar Singh Johal, 38, from Dumbarton, near Glasgow, was snatched from the street and arrested by Indian authorities in 2017 after going to the country for his wedding.
Jagtar had been a prominent blogger in the UK campaigning against human rights abuses against the Sikh community in India. The 38-year-old is currently the longest arbitrarily detained British person and his family are terrified after last month he was moved to Tahir Prison, in New Delhi, which has been described as being plagued with “rampant violence”.
Labour has had two major opportunities to press for the release of Jagtar, when he was acquitted in a court case in March, and when Sir Keir Starmer travelled to India earlier this year to meet his counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi to secure a much-trumpeted trade deal. Both the PM and the Foreign Office have said Jagtar’s case had been raised, most recently in October. He is currently the longest arbitrarily detained British citizen.
“In opposition Keir Starmer recognised that my brother is arbitrarily detained, but in power he’s fallen short. I’m sad to say that, so far, his government is doing no better than the last one.
“He keeps getting opportunities to break the deadlock and keeps on wasting them, saying he ‘raised’ the case, as if that’s enough.
