British Sikh man Jagtar Singh Johal has been granted bail by the Delhi High Court nearly nine years after he was arrested in India in connection with alleged terrorism-related offences.
Johal, 39, from Dumbarton, Scotland, was arrested in Punjab in November 2017 and subsequently accused by Indian authorities of involvement in funding the Khalistan Liberation Force and of links to a wider conspiracy involving targeted killings in Punjab. He has denied the allegations against him.
The latest ruling grants Johal bail in the federal cases against him after years of legal proceedings. His brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal, said the family expects him to be released from prison once the required legal and administrative formalities are completed.
Johal travelled to Punjab in 2017 to marry his fiancée. On November 4, several weeks after his wedding, he was detained while shopping with his wife and a relative in Jalandhar.
Johal has alleged that following his detention he was denied access to a lawyer and tortured in an effort to obtain a confession. Indian authorities have previously disputed allegations surrounding his treatment, while his case has attracted sustained attention from his family, human rights advocates and British politicians.
The Delhi proceedings followed another significant development in Johal’s cases in Punjab. In 2025, a Punjab court acquitted him and other defendants in a separate case involving similar conspiracy allegations.
Despite that acquittal, Johal remained imprisoned because he continued to face separate cases brought by India’s National Investigation Agency. His legal team and family have repeatedly challenged his continued detention and sought bail through India’s courts.
Reacting to the latest decision, Gurpreet Singh Johal said the family had spent years challenging the cases and pursuing bail through the Indian judicial system. He described the ruling as a major moment after a lengthy legal battle but said the family would not consider Johal fully free until he was able to return to Scotland.
Gurpreet, who also lives in Dumbarton, has campaigned extensively for his brother’s release and raised the case with successive British governments. UK foreign secretaries have previously expressed concern about the length of Johal’s detention while maintaining that Britain should respect India’s independent judicial process.
The case has also generated questions in Britain over whether information supplied by UK intelligence agencies may have contributed to Johal’s detention in India. The circumstances surrounding any potential intelligence sharing have remained a subject of scrutiny.
The bail ruling represents a major development in Johal’s long-running case, but it does not itself amount to an acquittal of all outstanding allegations. The remaining legal proceedings will determine the ultimate outcome of the cases still before the Indian courts.
