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- Archive 2019
- 2015 Elections: 11 new BME MP’s make history
- 70th Anniversary of the Partition of India
- Black Church Manifesto Questionnaire
- Brett Bailey: Exhibit B
- Briefing Paper: Ethnic Minorities in Politics and Public Life
- Civil Rights Leader Ratna Lachman dies
- ELLE Magazine: Young, Gifted, and Black
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- Gary Younge Book Sale
- George Osborne's budget increases racial disadvantage
- Goldsmiths Students' Union External Trustee
- International Commissioners condemn the appalling murder of Tyre Nichols
- Iqbal Wahhab OBE empowers Togo prisoners
- Job Vacancy: Head of Campaigns and Communications
- Media and Public Relations Officer for Jean Lambert MEP (full-time)
- Number 10 statement - race disparity unit
- Pathway to Success 2022
- Please donate £10 or more
- Rashan Charles had no Illegal Drugs
- Serena Williams: Black women should demand equal pay
- Thank you for your donation
- The Colour of Power 2021
- The Power of Poetry
- The UK election voter registration countdown begins now
- Volunteering roles at Community Alliance Lewisham (CAL)
Ashok Kumar wins award against police lies
A young Asian PHD student Ashok Kumar has spoken about his relief that video footage proved he did not assault a police officer during a student protest at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) back in 2011. If Kumar had been found guilty his promising academic and professional career would have ended and he could have found himself in jail and with his life in tatters.
Kumar said after being awarded £20,000 in compensation:
I’m just glad it's all over. Without the proof I could have been behind bars. What was astonishing was I was sitting in court and there were officers there ready to testify that I had done something when it was as clear as day from the video that I hadn’t.”
Police allegations against Kumar and a fellow student were thrown out after YouTube film and photographs showed “shocking” inconsistencies in Met officers’ accounts of the incidents.
In both cases the students were wrestled to the ground, arrested, strip-searched, fingerprinted and faced serious charges.
Debaleena Dasgupta, a solicitor from Birnberg Peirce who represented the men, called on Scotland Yard to investigate, adding:
The police are given immense power and malicious prosecution is one of the grossest abuses of this.”
Ironically Ashok Kumar, 29, had been invited by a government official to interview Government Minister Mr Willetts at the event.
The case against him was dropped in court after YouTube footage showed the police account was wrong and that no assault or obstruction had taken place.
Eventually Scotland Yard agreed to pay Mr £20, 000 in damages when his lawyers advised the Met that they would pursue them for wrongful arrest, assault and malicious prosecution.
One wonders about the shocking injustice that may have occurred if Kumar was unable to positively and irrefutably demonstrate the claims against him were a pack of lies.
Let’s hope the police officer/s involved will now answer for their shocking actions.
Simon Woolley