UK – Independent, Oct. 02, 2026
Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, was arrested in 2017 and has been imprisoned in the country since then.
A Scot who was released from an Indian jail after almost nine years remains in a “really dangerous and precarious situation”, campaigners working on his behalf have said.
Dan Dolan, deputy chief executive of human rights organisation Reprieve, said although Jagtar Singh Johal was released from prison on bail on Thursday, he is “still in really grave danger” and under “very serious restrictions” in Delhi.
Both he and Mr Johal’s local MP Douglas McAllister are calling on the Foreign Office to strike a deal with the Indian government that can bring the Scot home.
Mr Johal, a human rights activist from Dumbarton, travelled to India to get married in 2017, but just weeks later he was arrested over alleged terrorism offences, with his supporters saying he was tortured.
Those campaigning on Mr Johal’s behalf say while he has been released from prison he still faces restrictive bail conditions and has had to surrender his passport – while also still facing trial in a number of remaining cases which could end in capital punishment.
Mr Dolan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme that while Mr Johal “may have walked out of the prison, he is not a free man”.
