In a stunning case, an Indian-origin officer of the Met was hounded for challenging racism in his force and even slapped with a sexual assault case. The intrepid fighter finally has won all his battles handsomely
By Sajeda Momin in London
An Indian-origin officer in the British police force has been acquitted of racially and sexually abusing a teenager 29 years ago, finally bringing an end to the legal battles the man and his family were subjected to for decades. When summing up the case, the judge at Southwark Crown Court in London suggested that there was a strong possibility that a conspiracy had been hatched to tarnish Gurpal Virdi’s reputation, but that he was now being acquitted with his honor intact. Virdi had all along claimed that the Metropolitan Police, for which he worked for 30 years, had been hounding him for most of his career because he was one of the few Asian officers who dared to speak up against the inherent racist nature of Britain’s largest police force.
Virdi, 56, was accused of beating a 16-year-old boy in the back of a police van, calling him a nigger and sexually assaulting him with a police baton in 1986. The alleged victim, now 44, filed the case against Virdi in 2014, by which time Virdi had already retired as Detective Sergeant.
Virdi was arrested last year when the alle-ged victim claimed that he was swung round by his handcuffs hitting every inside panel of the van, verbally abused by being called a “nigger” and then prodded in the bottom with a collapsible police truncheon.
Virdi was then part of the crime squad in Battersea in South London and the incident is supposed to have happened outside the Old Bailey. It was this last allegation that actually cleared Virdi. The jury was told that while the incident was alleged to have taken place on November 7, 1986, the British police force first issued collapsible truncheons
to their officers four years later in 1990. It took the jury only 50 minutes to acquit Virdi of all charges.
COOKED UP CASES
A visibly relieved Virdi said the case had been cooked up against him by the Metropolitan Police or the Met, as it is often called, and covers the whole of London and the Greater London area, because they wanted to tarnish his image even now. “It is disturbing that the Met Police is still campaigning and targeting me and my family year after year. This has to stop,” said Virdi.
Criticizing what he called the combination of “conspiracy” and “incompetence”, Virdi said he was targeted as he was the only one who stood up and fought racism in the British Police Force. During the trial, Virdi accused the Met of bringing the criminal case against him as part of a 17-year-long campaign to “hound” him out of the force. “It was done to keep me quiet and then to make me look bad in the community, and people did avoid me. It was meant to destroy me,” explained Virdi, who lives in Hounslow in West London with his wife and two grown-up children.
Born in India, Virdi came to Britain as a young boy and grew up in Southall in West London, a predominantly Punjabi area. His father had served with the Delhi police, but when Virdi joined the Metropolitan Police in 1982, his parents were unhappy with his decision. Very few men or women of immigrant communities joined the British police then, as it was considered a white force. Virdi says that even today there are only some dozen officers of Asian, African or mixed-race origin who have been recruited and managed to last 30 years in the police force.
He had an unblemished career in uniform, CID and specialist squads until he was arrested in 1998. Ironically, Virdi was charged with sending racist hate mail to himself and other Asian and black colleagues at Ealing Police Station where he was posted, signing them from the racist National Front Organization.
SLOPPY PROBE
He and his wife had to face the harrowing experience of having their home searched for seven hours in the presence of their young children. The raid was authorized by then deputy commissioner, John Stevens, and came weeks after Virdi had threatened to go over the heads of his superiors regarding what he felt was a sloppy investigation of a racist, near-fatal stabbing of two boys—an Indian and an Iraqi—by five white males. Virdi had spoken up and pointed out the similarities with the “racist’’ investigation into the murder of a black teenager, Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
The Stephen Lawrence murder and investigation has become a pivotal point in the history of British race relations. Virdi gave evidence in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry about racism within the police force, and he claims that ever since, the Met has been trying to discredit him. “My career finished in 1998,” said Virdi. “As soon as you raise your head above the parapet, your career is finished, and everyone in the police service knows that. Most people keep silent because they know that even if you complain, the investigation won’t be done properly. That hasn’t changed even now,” he added.
It took a year for the Crown Prosecution Service to decide there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him, not least because the racist mail continued while Virdi sat at home. Even so, Scotland Yard seemed determined to make an example of him and he was dismissed in March 2000 after a disciplinary panel found him guilty of sending the racist mail.
HONOR RESTORED
Later that year, an employment tribunal found that the Met’s investigation had racially discriminated against Virdi. It ruled that unlike his white colleagues, Virdi had been subjected to an entrapment operation, been formally interviewed, had his house sear-ched, been arrested and suspended “without sufficient evidence to support the allegations”. He was awarded £1,50,000 as damages for the “high-handed” way the Yard had behaved and the way it had manipulated media coverage. He was also given another £90,000 as an out-of-court settlement for “injury to his feelings”.
The Independent Advisory Group, which monitors the Met’s performance on race crime, described the investigation as “disgraceful” and “a high-profile character assassination”. In 2001, Virdi and his wife, Sathat, were assured by Commissioner Stevens that lessons had been learnt, sent a formal apology and reinstated into the Force. The officer, or officers, who were responsible for sending the racist hate mail have never been found and the criminal case rem-ains unsolved.
In 2002, much against the wishes of his wife, Virdi went back to the Met. He was assured by Stevens that his career would not suffer as a result of a negative internal report claiming there was still “strong evidence” of his guilt. But his battle with the Force was far from over.
CONSTANT HURDLES
Encouraged by senior officers, in 2005, Virdi applied for promotion to detective inspector at a time when the Met had advertised that it had a shortage. He was endorsed by his line manager and it was agreed that he satisfied all the official criteria. But he was turned down by a review panel and his appeal rejected.
Virdi went to the tribunal claiming victimization after being passed over for promotion and eventually, it ruled in his favor. In its judgment on liability, the tribunal ruled that Virdi’s promotion application was treated differently from that of someone who had not taken legal action against the force. It said the process was “shoddily operated” and noted that he was now unlikely to get another chance of promotion before he retires. Virdi was awarded £70,400 in compensation, bringing the total he had won from the Force to more than £3,00,000.
In the last five years of his career, Virdi just “pushed pen around paper” for the Met’s Sikh Association, in the redeployment pool waiting for a suitable post. “I am not the type of person to run away. I wanted to complete 30 years, and I’m glad that I’ve done it. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done, but feel sad as I could have done so much more. I have been stopped from reaching my potential,” said Virdi on his retirement.
However, this was not to be the end of his harassment. Post-retirement, Virdi took up a second career in politics and joined the Labor Party. Last year, he won the Labor nomination in the local council elections, standing in the Cranford ward of Hounslow. But right in the middle of the campaign, the latest “trumped up” case of violence and sexual abuse was filed. The Labor Party dropped him as their candidate in the election, Virdi contested as an independent. He won his seat on the council by 1,643 votes.
Virdi, who has acquired quite a reputation for taking legal recourse to get justice, is very likely to seek compensation and damages for the latest attempts by the Met to frame him—and going by his track record he will probably win!