Jaggi Johal, 4 others discharged

Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, July 24

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In an alleged terror-funding case, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge on Wednesday discharged Jagtar Singh, alias Jaggi Johal, a British citizen and a prime accused in target killings in Punjab, along with four other accused.

The court declined to frame charges against Jaggi Johal of the UK, Taljeet Singh, alias Jimmy, Tarlok Singh and Jagjit Singh of Jammu and Kashmir and Gurpreet Singh Preet of Faridkot on Wednesday as the police had produced the challan against the accused without taking necessary sanction from the Centre and state government.

The other reason for the court not taking cognisance of the challan against the accused was that two criminal cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Arms Act on the same ground were already pending against the accused at Amritsar and Moga. In the absence of any new fact in the present case against the accused, registered at the Bajalkhana police station in June 2017, it was just repetition of the Moga and Amritsar case facts, so there was no need to frame charges against the accused in the present case, the court ordered on Wednesday, discharging all five accused in the UAPA case.

In January 2019, Jaggi Johal and Taljeet Singh were granted bail by the court as the police had failed to present challan in the court within 90 days, stipulated time for completion of investigation and filing of chargesheet.

Sources in the police revealed that Jaggi Johal was facing seven criminal cases in different parts of the state. Johal was arrested from Rama Mandi town of Jalandhar on November 4, 2017. He had arrived in India on October 2 for his marriage in Jalandhar.

On June 21, 2017, a special cell of the police had arrested Gurpreet Singh, alias Preet, of Jeowala village in Faridkot and Simranjit Singh of Kamalpur village of Moga. After the interrogation of Gurpreet, the police had allegedly recovered some firearms from his residence in Jeonwala.

In this criminal case under the UAPA and Arms Act at Bajakhana, Jaggi Johal and Taljeet Singh were also nominated as accused for allegedly providing weapons to the arrested accused.

Mandeep Chanana, advocate for Jaggi Johal and Taljeet Singh, said under the UAPA, the prosecution had to take prior sanction from the Centre and state government on the recommendation of a specially notified committee before presenting challan in the case. While the prosecution produced the challan in the court here on August 4, 2018, the committee was notified on February 26, 2019, thus rendering the challan an invalid document.