CHANDIGARH: The district court of Moga has acquitted UK national Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi Johal in the stringent Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act known as UAPA case granting him benefit of doubt. Seven other persons booked along with Jaggi Johal have also been acquitted.
Those acquitted include beside Jaggi Johal are Taljeet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Dharmeninder, Hardeep Singh, Anil Kumar, Jagtar Singh and Tarlok Singh. The judge had found irregularities in the prosecution investigation. Johal will remain in jail since some more anti-terror cases are pending against him.
The additional session judge Harjit Singh found shobby investigation and lack of sanction to prosecute the accused under UAPA. The court said that they are acquitted under sections 17, 18, 19, 20 of UAPA, according to Jaspal Singh Manjhpur his lawyer.
Jaggi Johal was arrested in 2017 and he, along with others was accused of being involved in targeted killings reported between April 2016 to October 2017 in Punjab. They were named in the murder of RSS leader Brig Jagdeeh Gagneja and arrested in November 2017. They are in jail since then. He is presently lodged in Mandoli jail in Delhi.
The arrest of Jaggi Johal by Indian police has created uproar in England as National Investigating agency had charged him for operating a cell of Khalistani terrorists. The court pointed out that investigation agency had failed to eastbalish with which banned organisation Jaggi Johal was linked.