BBC News have taken a close look at the “absurdly weak” evidence presented against Jagtar Singh Johal in the first case against him to come to trial. Last week a court in Punjab acquitted him of one of all charges after the judge said the prosecution “miserably failed to prove the commission of the [conspiracy] offences by all the accused.”
Jagtar’s family say they have been living through a nightmare ever since he was abducted in India seven years ago and imprisoned, but that they have renewed hope following the verdict. “To be vindicated in court is a great feeling,” his brother Gurpreet told the BBC.
“Ministers are saying all the right things but what counts is action. This judgement can be the beginning of the end of our family’s seven-year nightmare, if the government acts now.”
Jagtar remains imprisoned, as eight duplicate cases based on the same torture ‘confession’ and same central allegation remain unresolved. Dan Dolan, Reprieve’s deputy executive director, said the allegations against Jagtar in all nine cases are “all-but identical” and have been weak from the start:
“Seven years of his life have been wasted, with proceedings dragging out, when it was plain all along that there was never any solid evidence,” Dan told the BBC.
“The process is the punishment – the cases are no more than a thin excuse to keep him in jail.”