Thaindian News

London, Nov.26 (ANI): Scotland Yard has refused to say sorry to Tarique Ghaffur, Britain”’’s most senior Asian police officer, but agreed to pay him 300,000 pounds for dropping his race claim against former Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
Ghaffur will retire from the Metropolitan Police force immediately. Besides the race claim payout, he will also be entitled to a lump sum pension payment of 522,000 pounds and an index-linked pension of 85,000 pounds a year.
Insiders, according to The Telegraph, say that the settlement is a humiliating climb down for Ghaffur, who had originally been seeking more than a million pounds as compensation.
The police chief was relieved of his duties in September after staging a televised press conference to accuse the Metropolitan police”’’s leadership of sidelining him in favour of white officers.
The crux of his complaint was that his own deputy, Richard Bryan, and Sir Ian, had undermined him in his role co-ordinating security for the London Olympics in 2012.
Mr Ghaffur, the third most senior officer in the Met, had compiled an allegedly damning dossier of racial discrimination going back to 2005.
His claim threatened to plunge the Met into its worst race crisis in more than a decade and piled further pressure on the embattled Commissioner.
A joint statement by Sir Ian and the Metropolitan Police Authority acknowledged the “important service” of the police chief and “his significant contribution to operational policing nationally during his 34-year career”.
It said they also “recognised the hurt which he has felt over the past 18 months” - but did not apologise.
The MPA said the settlement covered his contactual obligations, and contributed towards his legal costs.
It is understood that Ghaffur will seek a role as a security consultant on the London Olympics. (ANI)