West Midland local Paramjeet Singh Saini has been detained by Immigration and Border Services (SEF) officers at a hotel in Algarve while he and his family were holidaying in Portugal.
Indian authorities have claimed Mr Saini was implicated in the murder of Sikh politician Rulda Singh in 2009, as well as a series of high-velocity bomb attacks the following year, in 2010.
42-year-old Saini is a suspected prominent member of outlawed Sikh separatist terror group Babbar Khalsa International. The organisation, which had its international base in the West Midlands, was banned in the UK under the Anti-Terror Act 2000.
MP John Spellar aid his constituent was an Indian national but has indefinite leave to stay in the UK until 2023 after successfully claiming political asylum two years ago.
He said:
“I am very concerned about Mr Saini’s detention and I have made strong and urgent representations on his behalf to the Foreign Office at a ministerial level.
“The fact is that the British government granted him political asylum on the basis that he would face persecution and inhumane treatment for his political beliefs if he were to be returned to India.
“No evidence was found against him and he was subsequently successfully granted political asylum. He has consistently completely refuted all the allegations laid against him which he says are politically motivated by India. ”
Mr Saini was arrested by West Midlands Police Counter Terror officers in 2010 after his alleged involvement with the controversial shooting of politician Rulda Singh. He was eventually released without charge after an 11-month investigation.
The West Midland local appeared before a court in Portugal after his arrest, just hours after landing in the southern town of Evora.
He will remain in custody until the Indian government can provide evidence against him.
Mr Saini’s wife Pinky Kaur said in a written statement to the Sikh Press without knowing what was happening to him. We know that if he gets taken to India we will never see him again. The UK government let us stay in England because they know what will happen to him if he is arrested.
“I hope the UK government again intervene to stop him being extradited.”
