THE First Minister has met with the family of a Scottish man facing the death penalty in India and offered the Scottish Government’s support.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, was “kidnapped” by Indian authorities and bundled into an unmarked vehicle just days after his wedding in 2017.

Johal, known as Jaggi, is still in jail pending trial and facing a potential death sentence under India’s anti-terror laws.

He says he was forced to sign a confession under electrocution and other torture in relation to accusations of conspiring to murder a number of right-wing Hindu leaders.

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Johal’s representatives have accused the judicial system of deliberately drawing out his detention through repeated court delays.

Sikh human rights blogger Johal, who also said he was forced to record a video which was broadcast on Indian TV, has previously said through his lawyer that he has been “falsely implicated”.

And now, Nicola Sturgeon has met with Johal’s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal, a solicitor, and offered the support of the Scottish Government.

The First Minister’s official Twitter account revealed the meeting and shared a picture of Nicola Sturgeon with Johal’s brother.

The National:

Johal's family have been campaigning for his release for three years

The tweet said: “We remain concerned for Jagtar Singh Johal’s continued detention without charge and allegations of torture.

“The First Minister met his family today to discuss the situation and offer @ScotGov support.”

Johal is currently being held in Tihar Prison Complex, in Delhi, the largest of its kind in South Asia.

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UN agencies and two international charities - Redress and Reprieve - have taken on the case.

We previously told how in June this year the UK Government were criticised for a "unforgivable dereliction of duty" in relation to Johal’s case.

In a Westminster Hall debate MPs from across the political spectrum voiced their anger, frustration and "despair" over Johal’s treatment and the government's "failure" to help him.

Asia Minister Nigel Adams failed to answer when he was asked multiple times why Johal’s imprisonment was not declared “arbirtrary detention”.

Arbitrary detention is where one government used the incarceration of a person to leverage another government, and has been declared in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe due to her treatment by the Iranian government.

The National:

Johal, known as Jaggi, has been in prison in India since 2017

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And, we told how earlier this week Johal’s advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur is on a phone hacking list, according to reports in India.

Manjhpur appears on a leaked list of thousands of numbers analysed by the Pegasus Project, an investigative journalism team backed by Amnesty International’s Security Lab.

The lawyer was allegedly chosen as a possible candidate for surveillance in 2018 using military-grade spyware by Israel’s NSO Group.