After two months of detention in Punjabi prison a Lathrop resident and United States citizen might finally be getting the State Department intervention – or at least interest – that his family has been begging for. 

Ravinderjit Singh Gogi was arrested on Feb. 26 while visiting the hospital bedside of his hunger-striking father, Surat Singh Khalsa – a permanent resident of the United States. He was charged with a pair of offenses that his family claims are purely political and are under Indian law intended as measures to prevent disturbing the peace.

On Wednesday eight of his family members visited the office of Congressman Jerry McNerney to call for Congress to demand his release and return.

“US officials need to be more aggressive,” Gogi’s youngest sister Mandeep Kaur said to McNerney’s staff. “No U.S. authorities have even gone to visit my brother yet. I do not even think any U.S. citizen is safe in traveling to India.”

And the meeting appears to have worked. 

McNerney was one of seven congressman – including Jeff Denham of Turlock, who represents most of Manteca – who signed a letter that was submitted to United States Secretary of State John Kerry to “look into the charges brought against Mr. Singh and Mr. Khalsa,” noting “It is a fundamental American responsibility to protect our citizens abroad.”

On Thursday night Kaur received an email from a State Department staffer that informed her that there is official correspondence between the United States and Indian governments regarding the matter. They also said there would be a consular officer from Embassy New Delhi in attendance when Gogi appears in court today – not to represent him or participate in the hearing per se but to “convey to the message both to the court and to the prison authorities that the U.S. Government is interested in the well-being of Mr. Singh and is watching their actions.”

The family claims that Gogi has been abused while in custody, and has yet to appear before a judge or magistrate – being told, instead, that if he convinces his ailing father, who is being force-fed to end his hunger strike that they will release him and allow him to travel back home to the United States. 

Certain Punjabi publications and advocacy groups have announced that city in which Gogi is being held recently enacted a curfew that prohibits the gathering of more than five people in any one place. Those calling for his release and also a peaceful end to Khalsa’s hunger strike – which is being carried out in the name of Sikh political prisoners in India – had also called for a mobilization of young people to gather in solidarity.