Johal was facing a total of nine cases and was already out on bail in one of them.Arrested in 2017, the 38-year-old was charged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under various laws including the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA. He is now lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.The judges set conditions, requiring him to submit his passport to the trial court and provide all his residential and personal details, including his mobile phone and landline numbers, to the investigating officer and the trial court.
“The appellant shall not join any WhatsApp group or other social media platforms where anti-national material is uploaded or circulated or propagated. He shall also not upload/share/disseminate or circulate any anti-national material on any social media platform or otherwise. He shall also furnish an undertaking to this effect before the learned Trial Court…,” the court said in the bail order.
Johal was arrested by the Punjab Police in November 2017 from Jalandhar when he arrived to get married. His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal and parents flew back to the UK after the marriage. Johal was accused of being a member of the pro-Khalistan outfit Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).
The arrest drew sharp scrutiny and criticism from British lawmakers, who raised the issue during the G20 summit in 2023. Seventy British MPs had signed a letter urging then PM Rishi Sunak to intervene and call on his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for Johal’s release during the summit.
Over the course of the investigation, eight cases of the Punjab Police were transferred to the NIA, which charged Johal with playing a key role in the transfer of 3,000 GBP to KLF founder Harminder Singh alias Mintoo.
Using the funds, the NIA chargesheets said, the KLF operatives carried out a series of targeted killings during the 2016-2017 period in Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
“Though the charges stand framed against the appellant in the aforesaid RCs (FIRs), only 40 witnesses have so far been examined, and we are informed that there are another 123 witnesses whose testimony is yet to be recorded,” the high court observed in the order.
“Out of these witnesses, there are about 63 common witnesses to the above RC(s), however, in spite of that, the trial is certainly not likely to conclude any time soon. We are reinforced in this belief as, in spite of the orders dated 20.05.2025, 11.12.2025 and 08.05.2026 passed by the Supreme Court, the pace of the trial has not really picked up, and even the statement of the protected witnesses has not been recorded.”
The reliefs granted to Johal were a departure from the High Court’s order in September 2024, which Johal challenged before the Supreme Court. However, as the matter had been pending for a long time, the apex court sent back the case to the High Court for fresh consideration on the merits.
The HC relied upon the findings of the Moga court which acquitted Johal in March last year in a similar case of being a co-conspirator and facilitating the movement of funds for a terror accused.
The bench dismissed the prosecution’s arguments that the Moga court acquittal should not have any bearing on these cases and observed that since Johal was implicated with similar allegations, the acquittal in Moga should have a strong “persuasive value”.
The judges also rejected the argument that Johal, by virtue of being a foreign national, was a flight risk and observed that it would impose conditions to ensure he did not become a flight risk.
(Edited by Tony Rai)