The family of a Scottish man detained in India for six years has said his life depends on the new foreign secretary’s intervention.
Jagtar Singh Johal, a 36-year-old Sikh activist, faces terror charges in connection with political violence in the north of the country.
His brother has now written to David Cameron and asked him to meet the family and call for Mr Johal’s release.
The UK government said it was committed to seeing the case resolved.
Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, was arrested in India in November 2017, weeks after his wedding there.
A cross-party group of MPs has said that having arrested him, “interrogators electrocuted him, and threatened to douse him in petrol and set him alight”.
They also said that to make the torture stop “Jagtar recorded video statements and signed blank pieces of paper”.
These allegations have been denied by the Indian authorities.
He is currently facing eight charges of conspiracy to murder, linked to political violence in India.
David Cameron is the sixth foreign secretary to be in post since his arrest.
Speaking to BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme, his brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said: “From day one it’s been difficult.
“It’s 2,208 days since my brother has been arbitrarily detained in an Indian jail and this government has failed.”
He said he last spoke to his brother from prison on 18 October – his 6th wedding anniversary – when he seemed to be trying to “put light at the end of the tunnel”.
Mr Johal added: “He was as well as he can be. He’s hopeful that in the next six months or so he can at least be out on bail, but that’s as much as I know.
“The bottom line is my brother’s life depends on what David Cameron decides to do and whether he decides to call for Jagtar’s release to bring him back home.”
Source : bbc
