Bathinda: Thirteen days after he was granted bail in all seven cases pertaining to targeted killings in Punjab and nearly nine years after he was arrested in Nov 2017, Scottish national Jagjit Singh Johal alias Jaggi Johal walked out of Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Thursday afternoon.The release orders were issued only after the counsels for Johal filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Delhi high court as he was not released in spite of bail. The high court had initially granted him bail on Sept 18. The bonds were furnished on Sept 19 and were approved on Sept 28, after which a special NIA court had sent the release orders to jail authorities.Citing a notification by the central govt under Section 268 of CrPC, Tihar Jail authorities did not release Johal.Upon being approached, the NIA court posted the matter for Oct 6. The counsels then filed a writ of habeas corpus in the high court, terming his detention as illegal. Hearing the petition, the court ordered the release, said Johal’s counsel Jaspal Singh Manjhpur.He was in custody for nearly the last nine years in the seven cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, being investigated by National Investigation Agency (NIA). He initially faced eight cases under UAPA, but was acquitted in one by the Moga district court on March 4, 2025.Only a few days after his wedding in India, Johal, who lives in Dumbarton in Scotland and is accused of being a member of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), was arrested in the cases of targeted killings of Hindu leaders. A campaign was started in the UK, hashtagged #FreeJaggiNow.Johal was booked in eight cases pertaining to funding the terrorist activities in Punjab and target killings of the leaders of Hindu outfits, including RSS leader Brigadier (retd) Jagdish Gagneja, Ravinder Gosain and others, carried out in 2016 and 2017 in Punjab.
