Jagtar Singh Johal, a UK-based Sikh who has been detained in India for seven years on charges of militancy, has been acquitted in one of the nine cases against him. Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton (Scotland), was arrested in Punjab in 2017, just weeks after his wedding. According to the Punjab Police, he is currently in jail for his alleged role in the targeted killings of religious and political figures. The Moga district court has acquitted him of charges of conspiracy and being a member of a militant organisation under the country’s anti-terrorism law. His legal team says the charges against Johal in all the cases, for which he faces the death penalty, are the same and the remaining charges should now be dismissed.
After the verdict, Jaggi Johal’s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said that Johal’s legal team has also questioned the evidence presented against him so far. He said that no concrete evidence was presented against him and the case was built on the testimony of credible witnesses, some of whom had given statements against him only to later retract them in court.
He said that several witnesses against Johal were declared “liars” during the proceedings because they refused to come to terms with the statements given to the police, while the prosecution failed to present other witnesses in full.
Meanwhile, Jagtar Singh alias Jaggi Johal’s father-in-law Baljinder Singh said that he was satisfied with the verdict. He said that Jaggi Johal was absolutely blameless, so God has mercy on him and he welcomes the verdict.
Baljinder Singh said, “When Jaggi Johal came to India, he stayed here for six months and made preparations for the wedding. During this period, they got engaged and got married. If he had known that any illegal cases could be registered against Jaggi Johal, he would not have married his daughter. Baljinder Singh said that the police have definitely falsely implicated Jaggi Johal in all the cases and one day he will definitely get justice.
Jaggi Johal’s lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur said that he will appeal in the high court against the decision of the three people who have been sentenced.
What is the whole matter
Giving more information about this case, lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, who is prosecuting the case, said that this is a case of Bagha Purana police station in the year 2016 and a section of UAPA was also involved in this case. ‘M’ in which a young man from Jammu and Kashmir, Tirlok Singh Ladi, was arrested in the case of Gurdeep Singh’s murder case. He was named after being taken on remand and showing a recovery (of weapons) in an FIR. According to him, “Later, after questioning him, his relative Daljit Singh Jimmy, who lives in the UK, was named. When Jimmy came to India on October 31, 2017, he was arrested.
When he was questioned, Jagtar Singh Jaggi Johal and other people were named in this case. This case, which has been going on since 2017, was now decided on March 4 by the court of Additional Sessions Judge and UAPA Special Judge (Moga) Harjit Singh. He said that as per the decision, Jagtar Singh Johal has been acquitted of all the charges. Only three people have been declared guilty in this case, for them too, they will go to the High Court because the evidence was not presented in the court. Apart from this, he said that the remaining 8 cases against Johal are pending. Johal has been granted bail in one of those cases.
