Rishi Sunak refuses to commit to lobbying Indian PM to release Dumbarton man Jagtar Singh Johal
dailyrecord.co.ukRishi Sunak has refused to commit to lobbying the Indian Prime Minister about the case of Dumbarton man Jagtar Singh Johal.The Tory PM said he wants to ensure “justice is done” but did not say he would raise the issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the pair meet at the G20 summit in New Dehli over the coming days.Sikh blogger Johal was in Punjab in northern India for his wedding in 2017 when his family said he was arrested and bundled into an unmarked car.He said he has been tortured with methods including electric shocks, and faces the death penalty over his activism and campaigning for Sikh human rights.A cross-party group of at least 70 MPs wrote to Sunak this week calling on him to press the Hindu nationalist leader to “immediately release” Johal.It comes after it was reported that Tory Foreign Secretary James Cleverly wrote to Johal’s brother in July to say the Government had decided it was best not to press India over the issue.Asked by reporters on the plane to New Delhi whether he would raise Johal’s case with Modi, Sunak said: “Both the Foreign Secretary and Foreign Office ministers have raised this case on multiple occasions with their counterparts.“We understand what his family are going through and want to make sure that the process works and that justice is done appropriately as well.”Pressed again on whether Johal’s situation would be part of his bilateral discussion, Sunak replied: “I’ll be raising a range of things with Prime Minister Modi.“This is something that, just so people are reassured, has already been raised on multiple levels on multiple occasions.” To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here .
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