BORIS Johnson has been urged to use his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call for the release of a Dumbarton man left languishing in an Indian prison for four and a half years.
Jagtar Singh Johal has been detained without trial and accused of involvement in terror offences.
His family say he’s a peaceful activist, and that the arrest is because he has documented human rights violations against Sikhs in India.
They say Jagtar, known as Jaggi, was snatched from the street by plain-clothes officers while out shopping with his wife, and has been detained in a series of prisons ever since.
However, India’s National Investigation Agency claim he played an important role in eight targeted killings carried out by the Khalistan Liberation Force between 2016 and 2017.
They’ve also accused him of distributing money to buy arms, and translating “incendiary material online fanning the fires of secessionist sentiments in Punjab.”
He has yet to stand trial.
Though he has signed a confession, the family claim police officers tortured him.
Their MP, Martin Docherty-Hughes has written to the Prime Minister pleading with him to raise the case with his Indian counterpart.
In his letter to Mr Johnson, the SNP MP said: "This has been a long and testing wait for Jagtar and his family in Dumbarton.
"Last year, the human rights charities Redress and Reprieve came to the legal conclusion on something that had seemed increasingly clear to those of us who have closely followed Jagtar’s case - that his detention was an arbitrary one, and that your Government should acknowledge this, along with a commitment to call for his immediate release.
"I understand that you will raise Jagtar’s case, probably more than once, during the time of your trip.
"It is something you did as Foreign Secretary, and indeed something that UK Government officials at all levels have done on numerous occasions, and while this may be something I know Jagtar’s family are immensely grateful for, it has not changed the Indian Government’s approach to the case."
Johal’s brother Gurpeet, has previously accused the UK government of “putting trade over human rights.
“This is a British national whose life is in danger, he faces the death penalty as a result of your negligence in not protecting him,” he told the BBC last year.
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