BRITAIN’S intelligence agencies supplied information to Indian authorities that led to the abduction and torture of a Scottish Sikh, his lawyers said yesterday.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, was in Punjab in northern India for his wedding in 2017 when his family say he was arrested, had a sack placed over his head and was bundled into an unmarked car.

The 35-year-old said he has been subjected to torture, including electric shocks to his nipples and genitals, and faces the death penalty over his activism and campaigning for Sikh human rights.

Mr Johal’s lawyers have lodged a complaint after rights group Reprieve identified his case among anonymised details published in the annual report by Britain’s investigatory powers commissioner.

It sets out how MI5 and MI6 passed information about a British national to foreign authorities, who then detained and tortured them, that matches details in Mr Johal’s case.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention previously determined that Mr Johal’s detention lacks legal basis, being based on discriminatory grounds owing to his Sikh faith and his status as a human rights defender.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had raised Mr Johal’s case during a trip to India in April.

Mr Johal’s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said: “I never imagined the scenes I’d seen in horror movies of people being abducted by a foreign government and violently tortured could become a reality for someone in my family.

“When it did, I expected our government would do everything in its power to save my brother.

“The twist is that not only has our government abandoned one of its own citizens, it’s actively betrayed him.”

He said his brother’s blogs only exposed the Indian government’s mistreatment of Sikhs, adding: “The UK should be championing free speech around the world, not assisting repressive regimes to torture and lock up British nationals who dare to criticise them.

“We need answers and accountability to make sure no other British family is put through this living hell.”

Reprieve director Maya Foa said: “It was already a scandal that, when a British national was snatched off the street by Indian authorities while on his honeymoon, Boris Johnson left him to rot for five years before finally admitting he was being arbitrarily detained.

“Now it appears the government hasn’t just been negligent but may have unlawfully enabled his abduction and brutal torture through a tip-off to the Indian authorities.

“The very least we can expect of our government is not to share intelligence that leads to us being detained and tortured overseas.”

Sikh Federation UK chairman Bhai Amrik Singh said the charges are extremely serious and have “much wider ramifications for British relations with India.”

He also highlighted that Tory leadership contender Liz Truss promised to make it a priority to ensure British nationals arbitrarily detained abroad are returned when she became Foreign Secretary last September. He called on her to redeem the situation by getting Mr Johal released immediately.

“The fallout for the Foreign Office, Home Office and intelligence agencies if this case goes all the way and there is full disclosure will be massive,” Mr Amrik Singh said.

Lawyer and Leigh Day partner Waleed Sheikh said: “It is vitally important for our client and his family to understand whether or not and to what extent the UK authorities were involved in sharing intelligence that may have led to our client’s arrest and subsequent detention and torture.

“It would be totally unacceptable for the government’s actions to have placed an individual, let alone a British citizen, at risk of torture or the death penalty.”   

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment while legal proceedings are active.”