HOME      NEWS      BACKGROUND      SUPPORT      CONTACTS      LINKS

Newsarchive  

Back to Current Campaign News

Private Enquiries into Case Announced

The whole of Scotland now knows that a major miscarriage of justice has taken place.  At two trials in March 1999 and November 2000, it was demonstrated beyond all doubt that three men were either present, or attacked, Surjit Singh Chhokar when he was battered then stabbed to death on a Lanarkshire street on November 4^th 1998.  Yet no conviction for murder was secured.  The verdicts of November 28^th 2000 are an indictment of the Crown Prosecution and the Police and a painful reminder of the way that black and Asian victims of racist violence are denied justice. It is clear that there are two systems of justice in this country one for the rich and another for black people and the poor.

The announcement by Jim Wallace and the Lord Advocate of two separate, private inquiries is an acknowledgement that a serious miscarriage of justice has occurred and that the criminal justice system failed the Chhokar family.  However, the closed and in-house nature of these investigations could leave many of the central questions unanswered.  Why were the two trials of the accused held separately?  Why was any racial motive explicitly discounted by the police hours after the murder and before a full investigation could be carried out? 

We are also very concerned that, although there are three motions in Parliament on the Chhokar case, these are not being debated. This issue has now slipped down the agenda of the executive. It appears to us that the Crown and the Police have absolute power, and are now flexing that power by holding an enquiry behind closed doors.

The Chhokar Family Justice Campaign is adamant that the fight for justice must go on. Only a full and genuinely independent public inquiry can begin to address the real issues at stake in this whole affair. Only a public inquiry can ensure that the Crown Office will be held publicly accountable for a series of fundamental errors, for professional incompetence, and for institutional racism.

Back to Top

December 8, 2000 Guardian
Stabbing that exposed Scots racism

By Gerard Seenan

On a dark winter's night Surjit Singh Chhokar got out of his car and slammed the door. It had been a long shift at the restaurant and in one hand he carried a takeaway curry and in the other a bottle of Irn Bru. He was a Scots Asian.

From the window of her council flat above, Mr Chhokar's girlfriend watched him drive into the street, before turning away from the familiar scene. A few minutes later Elizabeth Bryce looked helplessly on while her boyfriend bled to death.

As Ms Bryce made her way to the door of her home in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Mr Chhokar, 32, was met in the street by three white men: Ronnie Coulter, 32; his nephew, Andrew Coulter, 19; and David Montgomery, 23. It was around 11.20pm on November 4 1998, and the three were waiting for Mr Chhokar to resolve a dispute over a stolen giro cheque. Andrew Coulter was armed with a heavy bat. Someone was carrying a knife.

Almost as soon as Mr Chhokar met the three men, a scuffle broke out. He tried to back away, but Ronnie Coulter followed and punched him repeatedly. Seconds later, Mr Chhokar was attacked with the bat. Vainly, he swung round the Irn Bru bottle in an attempt to defend himself. Upstairs, his girlfriend heard him scream.

Ms Bryce ran to the window; from there she could see the attack. She ran out on to the street and picked up a spade, making for the three men. Mr Chhokar crossed the road towards her and cried out: "They stabbed me."And he had been stabbed - through the heart.

Andrew Coulter and Montgomery drove off in their car. Within hours, Ronnie Coulter had scrubbed his and his nephew's clothes clean. The next day, his ex-girlfriend says, he handed her a bag stuffed with the clothes and a set of knives with one blade missing. A few days after the attack, Montgomery had his car valeted before it was sold.

"That night I was sleeping and I heard my daughter-in-law and my grandchildren at the door. They were all crying," said Darsham Chhokar, Surjit's father. "They kept saying, 'Surjit is no more'. I didn't understand."

Set of knives

Within days, Ronnie and Andrew Coulter and Montgomery had been arrested. There were no other suspects; all three admitted being at the scene of the crime. Ronnie and Andrew Coulter shared a first floor flat in a high rise on the rundown Gowkthrapple housing scheme. A few floors above lived Mr Chhokar; he knew both men. But on the morning of December 4, Andrew Coulter broke into Mr Chhokar's flat and stole his giro. Mr Chhokar, even his family admit, was far from an angel, but when he found out Andrew Coulter had stolen his benefit cheque he was furious. Mr Chhokar informed the DSS and told Ms Bryce he planned to bring in the police.

Four months after Mr Chhokar's murder, Ronnie Coulter stood trial. No one informed the Chhokar family of the court date, though relatives spotted it in a newspaper. When the family arrived at court, they expected to see all three men in the dock. The crown office has consistently refused to say why Ronnie Coulter stood trial alone.

Before he stood trial, Ronnie Coulter lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Andrew Coulter and Montgomery for the murder. The Chhokar family, who speak little English, did not understand what was going on in the court. They were not alone. After six days the trial ended abruptly. Ronnie Coulter was convicted on a charge of assault. The crown did not move for sentencing and he walked free from court. The Chhokars were devastated; the trial judge, Lord McCluskey, was furious.

He told the jury: "A young man was murdered in a public street by one or more persons whose identities have been freely discussed in this case. For reasons I cannot begin to understand, one, and only one, of those persons was placed in the dock and charged with the crime."

The lord advocate was initially dismissive of the unprecedented attack on the crown office, but its timing was crucial. Lord McCluskey made his comments in March of last year, two weeks after the publication of the Macpherson report. As scrutiny of race relations in Britain moved to the top of the political agenda, Neville Lawrence, father of the murdered black teenager Stephen, travelled to Glasgow to lend his support.

Pressure applied

Race campaigners, MSPs and MPs began to pile pressure on the crown office. The family began to be offered meetings. At the start of last month, Andrew Coulter and Montgomery stood trial for Mr Chhokar's murder. This time, though, things were different.

In an unprecedented step, the family was given courtroom translators. When Andrew Coulter and Montgomery blamed Ronnie Coulter for the murder, the Chhokars understood what was going on. As the trial proceeded, however, it became obvious there was little chance of obtaining successful convictions. Margaret Chisholm, mother to Andrew and sister to Ronnie, told the court Ronnie had confessed to the murder. She said he boasted: "I've stabbed the black bastard."

As portents of a crisis echoed louder, a group of Scotland's most senior judges held a secret emergency meeting. Even before the jury had returned, the new lord advocate, Colin Boyd QC, had announced he would be holding a press conference. At that conference, two inquiries were announced. Raj Jandoo would head one into the treatment of the family. A second inquiry, headed by Sir Anthony Campbell QC, would examine the decision not to prosecute all three men together. This was not enough to appease the family, who are calling for a full public inquiry.

"Raj Jandoo is a high court prosecutor and junior counsel who relies on the lord advocate for cases. How can we guarantee that he will be independent? The lord advocate appointed Sir Anthony Campbell and the crown office will decide which of his findings it makes public. That is not an independent inquiry by anyone's understanding," said Aamer Anwar, spokesman for the family.

The fallout from the obvious failures in the Chhokar case is being felt in Scotland. After the jury delivered its not guilty verdicts in the second trial, it could finally be revealed that Andrew Coulter was in prison for stabbing another man to death. He killed Patrick Kelly, 26, while on bail for Mr Chhokar's murder.

At the weekend, the Scottish justice minister, Jim Wallace, admitted there had been institutional racism in the crown office and Strathclyde police. Both bodies refused to comment on the accusation.

The case has also prompted a wider examination of the treatment of black people by the criminal justice system. Of 1,274 people employed by the crown office and procurator fiscal, only seven are from ethnic minority backgrounds.

But accusations of racism are being fought hard in many quarters of the system - and legal officials have voiced concern that the opportunity to expose widespread incompetence in the crown office might be eclipsed by campaigners too keen to bring in the race angle.

Within hours of the attack on Mr Chhokar, the police had informed a local councillor that it was not a racial murder. However, in the new year, Imran Khan, solicitor to the Lawrence family, and Michael Mansfield QC, will help the Chhokar family launch a full campaign for a public inquiry. They already have cross-party support from MSPs.

Bigger picture

In the meantime, a Sikh family in Lanarkshire is left trying to understand how they lost their son - and how British justice let them down so badly.

"My family had it in their blood that British justice was the best in the world. What I had been told was that British justice was blindfolded and everyone was treated equally," said Darsham Chhokar. "I have come to see that my family were not treated in that way, because they were black. It has destroyed my faith in the word justice, especially British justice."

Back to Top

Scotland on Sunday 3 December 2000
Chhokar family meet Lawrence lawyers
By Peter Laing and Jason Allardyce 

THE family of murdered waiter Surjit Chhokar yesterday met the lawyers who masterminded the Stephen Lawrence campaign to enlist their help in bringing a civil action against the three men cleared of the killing.
Michael Mansfield and Imran Khan, who grilled police officers over the Lawrence case, will also advise on the fight for a public inquiry into the case.

The direct link to the Lawrence case is a serious blow to the Crown Office, which has been attempting to fend off allegations of incompetence and racism in its handling of the Chhokar case. Last week, Andrew Coulter, 19, and David Montgomery, 23, were cleared of murdering Chhokar in Overtown, near Wishaw, in November 1998. Last March Ronald Coulter, 32, was also cleared of murdering the father of two. The men were cleared despite eye witness evidence, an alleged confession, and the fact that they blamed each other. The unexplained decision to try them separately is widely seen as having a bearing on the failure.

Equally damaging are the complaints that police and prosecutors failed at every stage of the proceedings to keep the dead man’s family informed. The Crown Office has ordered two inquiries, both to be held in private. A judicial inquiry will look at the prosecution’s handling of the case. A second inquiry will study the Crown Office’s liaison with the Chhokar family.

Last night, the spokesman for the Chhokar campaign, Aamer Anwar, said he had met the Lawrence legal team in London and they had agreed to give their support. He said: "Imran Khan and Michael Mansfield will attend a big Chhokar campaign meeting in Glasgow in the new year." Anwar said the pair’s experience in fighting a series of prominent race cases south of the Border would prove invaluable. There will be a second meeting in London next week to finalise the details of their strategy. Anwar said Mansfield and Khan would add tremendous pressure on the Crown Office to agree to demands for a single, public inquiry into the Chhokar case.

At the same time, the campaigners are planning to sue Ronnie Coulter, Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery in the civil courts for compensation. "This is not about money," said Anwar. "These individuals do not have money as such. But they were responsible for his death and we want a court to declare that.
"Bringing the case would also mean the Crown Office was forced to give us access to documents on the case."

Scotland on Sunday can also reveal that the Crown Office attempted to cover up the reason why a prosecutor snubbed the Chhokar family. An official report into the way the prosecution dealt with the family claims the leading lawyer in the case, Frances McMenamin QC, could not talk to them because of unexplained "peculiar circumstances". We can reveal that the problem was that McMenamin was also dealing with a VAT fraud trial in which Chhokar’s father, Darshan, was a potential witness and she feared a conflict of interest.

The case involved the evasion of whisky duty worth £1.6m, and in July last year three men were sentenced to a total of over 11 years in jail. Darshan Chhokar was not called to give evidence. Last night, Anwar said there was no reason for the Crown to keep this information secret. He asked: "Why did they not contact the family and ask if they could put it in the report? We did not have a problem with it being published. The Crown Office put it in there to throw a spanner in the works. I was shocked when I read it. "Were they trying to imply Mr Chhokar was part and parcel of the whole case when he was not? It’s an implicit threat to back off. If you do persist with this then other things could come out. That is a disgusting way to treat the family."

Opposition politicians last night condemned the Crown Office over the disclosure. Tory justice spokesman Phil Gallie said a conflict of interest could have been avoided by simply ensuring that the advocate depute concerned was not involved in both cases. "The fact that this was kept secret magnifies rather than diminishes this. It seems a pretty weak excuse," he said. SNP shadow justice minister Roseanna Cunningham also cast doubt on the advocate depute’s logic, arguing that if she had identified a conflict of interest then she should have withdrawn from the case.

No one was available for comment from the Crown Office.

Back to Top

Dec 3rd 2000
Race campaigners back public
probe into Chhokar murder case
By Stephen Naysmith

RACE campaigners have condemned the Scottish Executive and Lord Advocate Colin Boyd over their response to the failed Chhokar murder trials and are calling for a public inquiry.

After blunders by the prosecution and failures in family liaison by court officials and police, two inquiries have already been set up to look into the case. Northern Ireland Court of Appeal judge Sir Anthony Campbell QC will look at the Crown's handling of the case, while advocate Dr Raj Jandoo will examine liaison with the family. The Chhokar Family Justice Campaign dismissed the two inquiries as an attempted "whitewash". Yesterday Darsham Chhokar, father of the murder victim, took part in a National Assembly Against Racism meeting at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in London. He called on trade unions to back calls for a full public inquiry.

That call was backed yesterday by the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland. Aamer Anwar, the trainee solicitor who has acted as spokesman for the Chhokar campaign, doesn't believe that Scotland's legal establishment or media have faced up to the true scale of their failure in dealing with Surjit Singh Chhokar's death. The Chhokar case was not deemed to be a racial attack, so it has been claimed that it is not "Scotland's Stephen Lawrence". Anwar argues that this is wholly missing the point of the months of evidence heard by Sir William Macpherson. Anwar said: "The Stephen Lawrence inquiry was the most important piece of anti-racist work done in the last century. But it wasn't about who killed Stephen Lawrence. Neither is this an issue about who killed Surjit.

"The implications of this case start the night Surjit is dead, when the authorities come onto the scene. It is about how they acted, the decisions they took and how they dealt with the family. In that respect, the parallels are very strong. It is neither here nor there what the motives of the killers were. The context is the manner in which the criminal-justice system deals with minorities."

The Crown cannot hide behind simple admissions that it was at fault, Anwar argued. "If the real lessons are not learned then, when you strip away the cameras and the media, in another corner of Scotland, when there is another Mr and Mrs Chhokar, then the whole process begins again," he said.

The Chhokar Family Justice Campaign has argued that, viewed alone, the incompetence of the prosecution could just be incompetence. Anwar said the Chhokar family were turned away when they arrived for the first trial. Basic information was denied to them by the courts and police. Surjit's sister Manjit was asked to tell security staff at the High Court in Glasgow last month what colour her husband's turban was before they would accept that she should be allowed in the family room, says the family campaign. When all these failings are put together, they amount to institutional racism.

"If they accept that they are institutionally racist, why is there no evidence of action being taken?" Anwar said. "We have seen with Chinook what a controlled inquiry - in private with hand-picked people - reveals. We need a public inquiry. That is the only way you get to the truth."

The Commission for Racial Equality has expressed similar concerns. Criminal-justice spokesman Mick Conboy said: "The Metropolitan Police were found to be incompetent in dealing with the Lawrence case, but that wasn't the end of the story. There is a suspicion that they are trying to keep a lid on things here."

In that context, it is unfortunate that the two inquiries are not to be held in public, he said. "The Chhokars were excluded from a number of the key decisions in their son's case. Now they are told, 'That exclusion is set to continue. You won't be part of this. We'll tell you what you need to know.'"

Back to Top

Scotland on Sunday
The town of few tears
Peter Laing

RONNIE Coulter appears at the end of the street. He’s wearing a white jacket which he has pulled over the lower part of his face. His hair is shaved at the sides and slightly longer on top. He is thin, wiry, and has an air of menace absent from photographs of him snatched outside court. Coulter advances. "Forget it!" he answers to an unasked question and marches into his flat. Seconds later, whether by accident or design, two pit bulls are out of his flat and on the street. Thankfully, they appear to have been recently fed.

Welcome to Wishaw. This is the Lanarkshire town where two years ago an Asian waiter, Surjit Singh Chhokar, was stabbed to death in the street. Coulter was one of three men cleared of the killing at two separate murder trials. Today, Wishaw gives the impression of a town trying to forget, assuming it cared much in the first place. Like so many areas of urban Scotland, a culture of knives, street fights and the occasional violent death has seeped into the brickwork along with dampness.

Only this time it’s different. A street stabbing some would dismiss as ‘low life’ has intruded into the cloistered world of Scotland’s legal establishment, presenting it with its biggest crisis for years. The Crown Office and police find themselves accused of incompetence and institutional racism. The two private inquiries that have been ordered are already being condemned as whitewashes.

Meanwhile, the questions are coming faster than the Crown Office can respond to them with its customary "no comment". Why did the prosecution try Ronnie Coulter at one trial and Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery at another, allowing them to blame each other? Chhokar’s family are angry and confused in equal measure. Why did prosecutors and police fail to keep them informed of developments in the case? Why, for example, did they have to learn about the second murder trial from journalists?

Whatever the explanation, it is beyond doubt that Scotland now has its own Stephen Lawrence case, complete with allegations of institutional racism. Just as in the Lawrence case, men widely believed to have escaped justice are free to swagger and spread fear in a community already blighted by crime.

The one place where questions are possibly not being asked is Wishaw itself. After all, no one wants a knife in the chest. If a consensus emerges about Ronnie Coulter, it’s that he’s a "nice" guy, who stood trial and got off, and is now minding his own business. To what extent this view is inspired by fear is anyone’s guess, but it is claimed by Chhokar justice campaigners that three people saw the killing but have never come forward.

At the time of Chhokar’s murder, Coulter was living in high-rise Caplaw Court, part of the Gowkthrapple scheme on the outskirts of Wishaw. He lived in a first-floor flat with his teenage nephew, Andrew Coulter. Nine floors above them was Chhokar’s flat. ‘Gowkie’ as it is known to locals, has had an expensive facelift but there is little evidence of money for new jobs or amenities. Close-up, the grinding poverty shows through the new cladding on the tower block. A shop in the shadow of Caplaw Court is daubed with graffiti, including SS and KKK. Elsewhere, in angular blue letters, someone has sprayed the words Andrew C.

Outside the shop, two teenage girls discuss Ronnie Coulter. "Ronnie’s a nice guy," says one of them. "I don’t think he did it." It is suggested to the young woman that Ronnie Coulter was recently attacked with a machete after a falling out. The girl’s face is blank for several seconds and then, visibly surprised, she remembers it is true. It seems Gowkie is a place where a machete attack on a neighbour is not worth devoting much memory capacity to.

No one seems to know where Coulter has gone. His flat is now boarded up and residents say they have not seen him for some time. They assume he is keeping his head down.

IN FACT, Coulter has done pretty well out of his scrape with Scottish justice. He has somehow swapped the grim realities of Caplaw Court for a smart council home in one of Wishaw’s better areas a few miles away. The street is a neat and well maintained cul-de-sac. Most of the four-in-a-block homes are occupied by elderly people and families. Coulter’s downstairs flat has new doors and windows and a pit bull terrier staring out as extra protection. Coulter moved into the ground floor flat shortly after his acquittal in March last year. There are suggestions of a girlfriend and child.

It seems Coulter spends most of his time in the flat. There is no job, no car. He emerges occasionally to take his pit bulls for a walk. "He doesn’t cause any bother at all," said one neighbour. "You don’t see him about much." There is a distinct sense of fear. Indeed, Ronnie Coulter is not someone to be messed with. He has the words Devil’s Advocate tattooed on his shoulder, an apparent reference to the film of the same name in which a lawyer specialises in getting the guilty acquitted.

But residents deny they are afraid. "Do you mean do I feel intimidated?" asks one woman. "You must be joking. The way I see it is that someone died and no one has been jailed for it, and that’s terrible. But Ronnie went to court and got off and that should be the end of it." Barely 100 yards away, in an identical council flat, lives David Montgomery, 23, who was also cleared of murdering Chhokar. A neighbour of Montgomery appears totally unconcerned by his presence. "I think he’s all right," she says. "He just lives there with his girlfriend and children. They play with my kids."

The only member of the trio not enjoying his liberty is Andrew Coulter. Although he was cleared of murdering Chhokar, the 19-year-old is serving six years for another knife killing in Wishaw.

Contrast this with the Chhokar family, who are presently serving a life sentence of grief with no prospect of release on licence. His parents, Darshan and Gurdan, hoard childhood mementoes of their son, including his first pair of football boots, which have been carefully wrapped and stored away. He used to visit his parents every day and they still hear his voice shouting from the doorway: "Hello mum, hello dad."

Chhokar was seven when the family moved to Britain from the Punjab in the 1970s. They lived in England first but moved north of the Border when Chhokar’s elder sister, Manjit, got married. The Chhokars ran a grocery shop in the town of Law. Surjit accepted the marriage his family arranged for him and had two children. But he began an affair with Liz Bryce, now 39, and in 1996 separated from his wife.

It was around this time that Chhokar decided to take a flat in Caplaw Court, which was conveniently close to Bryce’s home in Overtown. There is nothing to suggest any history of racial tension between Chhokar and the Coulters, but in November 1998 their paths crossed with fatal consequences. Bryce gave evidence that on the day of the murder, Andrew Coulter had stolen Chhokar’s latest giro cheque from his flat and cashed it. Bryce says she spoke to Coulter, who claimed Chhokar had asked him to cash the giro. Bryce warned him they had told the DSS and the police would probably be involved.

At 11.20pm, Chhokar, who was continuing to work as a waiter, arrived outside Bryce’s home and smiled up at her. She went to the door and heard screaming. She ran to the window and says she saw Ronnie Coulter, Andrew Coulter and Montgomery pulling Chhokar across the road. "I saw Ronnie Coulter swing something," she said. Chhokar had been stabbed through the heart and bled to death. Within days, all three alleged attackers were in custody.

Four months later, to the astonishment of Chhokar’s family, Ronnie Coulter appeared alone in the dock. The Crown Office has consistently refused to say why it departed from its usual practice of charging the entire gang. Coulter, in a special defence, blamed his nephew and Montgomery for the killing. He was convicted of assault but cleared of murder. Since he had already spent over three months in custody he walked free.

The trial judge, Lord McCluskey, was furious. He told the jury: "Ladies and gentlemen, a young man was murdered in a public street by one or more persons whose identities have been freely discussed in this case. For reasons that I cannot begin to understand, one, and only one, of those persons was placed in the dock and charged with the crime." The then Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie, responded: "It is a matter of regret that a judge of such experience should make such public pronouncements in ignorance of the background of this case."

Last month, Andrew Coulter and Montgomery finally stood trial for murder. They blamed Ronnie Coulter, who was described in court as "an evil calculating killer". Ronnie Coulter’s sister, Margaret Chisholm, said in court he had confessed to the crime. Andrew Coulter and Montgomery were acquitted on Tuesday last week. Only then, in another astonishing twist, could it be revealed that Andrew Coulter had been convicted of culpable homicide in stabbing Patrick Kelly while on bail for the Chhokar case.

Aamar Anwar, spokesman for the Chhokar Family Justice Campaign, said members of the family were in deep shock immediately after the verdicts but were now more determined than ever to get some form of justice for their son. "We are not taking anything less than a public inquiry," said Anwar. "I suspect there is a major cover-up going on at the top of the legal establishment because of their complete determination to stick to their guns on this." The family are also discussing with the Stephen Lawrence legal team the possibility of taking civil action against the three acquitted men for compensation. They believe the case will force the Crown Office to release its papers on the original murder inquiry.

Back in Gowkie there is little interest in what this growing legal and social row will lead to. No one believes it will make much difference to the scheme. "Ronnie’s done OK," said one resident. "When he lived here he just hung about with his nephew and other teenage kids and drank. He was pathetic, a plonker. "Now he can play the big, hard man because he’s got off with a murder - and he’s out of here. This is a desperate place."

Back to Top

Dec 3rd 2000
Where racism's brutal face is a fact of life for Asians

Kathleen Nutt visits the area where Surjit Singh Chhokar lived and died to find out how Asians and white people are trying to make sense of the tragedy
Publication Date:

RACISM is a brutal fact of life for 23-year-old Khurram. For four years he has worked in shops in Wishaw and trouble has never been far from his door. Every day, on top of dealing with the usual problems of break-ins, thieves and shoplifters, he faces being spat at, threats of violence and verbal racial abuse. He has given up removing the graffiti daubed on the walls and sadly admits that taunts and name-calling have become a staple part of his life.

Khurram's shop nestles under the multi-storey Caplaw Tower in the Gowkthrapple estate where Andrew Coulter and his uncle Ronnie lived at the time they attacked 32-year-old Surjit Singh Chhokar. It is a grim suburb of Wishaw, composed of high-rise tower blocks and a network of lower-level blocks of flats, narrow alleyways and parking lots. Despite the millions of pounds spent recently refurbishing the 1960s buildings there has been no attempt to make this a happy place. Few people walk about the streets. There are only a couple of shops and no sign of any other facilities; there is no library, no pub, no community centre and no green areas for children to play.

Khurram knew both the Coulters in passing and after moving to the area a couple of years ago, quickly became aware of their violent and thuggish reputations. He also knew the Coulters' victims, Chhokar and 26-year-old Patrick Kelly, knifed to death by Andrew Coulter who was on bail for the earlier murder of the waiter. The killings, he says, shocked and saddened him. But neither of the victims, he concedes, were the most honest and upstanding of people. Like the majority of the young men in the area, Kelly, while a gentle and quiet person, was a drug user who had virtually dropped out of wider society. He and his girlfriend, who also regularly used drugs, lived in a top-storey flat behind the shop and were passing acquaintances with the Coulters who lived a few hundred yards away.

Chhokar, on the other hand, had left his wife and two children and moved into his girlfriend Elizabeth Bryce's flat in Garrion Street, Overtown, a mile or so from the Gowktrapple estate. He worked as a waiter in a local Indian restaurant, but kept on a flat in Caplaw Tower, the same high-rise as the Coulters, where an unemployment benefit girocheque for £100.70 was sent to him regularly. The Coulters knew of the scam and took advantage of Chhokar's minor law-breaking, believing the theft of the giro would not be reported. But it was.

Khurram has no doubt that the killing was racist, despite the fact that on the face of it revenge would seem to have been the primary motivation. It's difficult for him to say exactly why he thinks it was a racist crime and instead of giving a direct explanation he points to the abuse that he gets and says that he finds it impossible to believe that Chhokar didn't experience it too. "Chhokar did mix with white people, but it might have been a lot better if he hadn't," he summed up with an air of resignation and sadness.

He does, however, think there are good white people in the area - but believes they too are victims of the callous way in which the majority of the area's residents appear to lead their lives. "There are some decent people around here, and they are suffering too, But there are a lot more people who are far from decent," he says. "The Coulters had a bad reputation before Chhokar died but after the murder they became even more notorious. Both, I would say, were easily capable of murder. But they are no worse than a lot of people who live here."

Twice or three times a week Khurram has to call out the police to his shop. Usually it is for minor nuisances, such as youngsters running on the roof of his shop or breaking his windows. But the constant bother, he says is swearing and intimidation. He gets a mixed response from the police. "Sometimes they come out, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they just phone back and ask if they're still there and don't bother coming around if they're not," he adds, unclear whether it is because the police do not take the matter seriously because he is Asian or just because the area is so deeply troubled.

His opinions on the appalling quality of life in Gowkthrapple are shared by another occupant of Caplaw Tower. The woman, who is white and did not want to be named, said she believed the Coulters had got away with the deaths of two people. "I can't say whether Chhokar's murder was racist, but I think it's a disgrace that the two of them got off. There is no justice," she said. She added that detectives were frequent visitors to Andrew Coulter's two-bedroomed flat, suspecting him of drug dealing and breaking into houses. Not long after moving into the high-rise a steel door was put up at the entrance to his flat and large black letters spelling "Andy" were daubed around the walls in the stairwell. These moves, along with the frequent CID visits, and calls from strangers made the woman frightened. Her fears were exacerbated after the killings and now she rarely ventures outside from late afternoon. Indeed, she was so afraid of the Coulters that she counts herself lucky not to be among their dead victims.

However, there are mixed views in the community about the Chhokar murder and its legacy. In the village of Overtown fresh white carnations and purple heather lie on the spot where the waiter was slain as he arrived at his girlfriend's flat, clutching an Indian carry-out and a can of Iru Bru. The flowers are a poignant reminder of what happened here little more than two years ago. But few people here are prepared to talk about it and the effects it has had on them and the village. "It wasn't racist and there is no racism here," said one young woman confidently. "Talk to any of the 'Paki' shops and any of the takeaways. It's just a load of nonsense." Her views, so confidently expressed, were not shared by the people she sought to represent.

The distinct racial tension in the atmosphere echoes the mood in the southside of Glasgow following the fatal stabbing of Shawlands Academy pupil Imran Khan by 17-year-old Colin Gilmour in February, 1998. While 15-year-old Imran lay dying in the Victoria Royal Infirmary, pupils at his school declared all-out war on each other. Today schoolgirls Nazia and Tabassan, both 17, sit in the dining room at Shawlands Academy and describe how the area changed into a zone of violent conflict one afternoon. "The dining room was packed and the mood tense. All the Asian kids were sitting on one side of the dining room and all the white kids on the other. Suddenly all the Asian boys jumped up and ran over to the other side and started fighting the white boys. It was terrifying," recalls Nazia.

Both girls say the school, of which 40% of its 1200 pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds, has made enormous efforts to improve race relations. There is more mixing of the races and racist taunts and abuse are not tolerated, they say. Nevertheless, while they believe emotions have cooled considerably, they feel that should another Asian boy be killed by another white boy, the situation would easily erupt again. "There is an underlying tenseness," says Tabassan. "I believe that if it happened again the situation would come back - and this time it would be even worse." 

Nazia and Tabassan have never had any encounters with the police and have no definite views on whether the criminal justice system is fair. But they know their older brothers have much more negative attitudes towards police. Episodes such as the Imran Khan and Chhokar cases, and the legal system's failure to secure convictions, reinforce views that the law can't be trusted and it is up to the community to fight back against the racists itself, they say.

It is an issue the young men of Glasgow's Asian community in Albert Drive, Pollokshields, are not keen to discuss. However, Shaver Ali, 21, is happy to tell how one of his friends was assaulted several years ago by a gang of white youths. "He went to the police and reported what had happened, but nothing was done. I got the feeling they never took it seriously," he said. "My experience is that when you tell the police an incident was racist they think you're over-reacting because you're Asian."

His friends agree. Each recount stories of being approached by police officers on the street, being taken to a police station and being kept for a few hours before being released without charge. "It's just harassment. I've been standing in the street, talking to friends and the next thing I was being packed into a police van and taken off to Pitt Street," says Sha, 21. "My parents had a much more positive attitude to the police than me, but they never had the bother I've had from them."

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing and member of the Chhokar Family Justice Campaign, believes there's a danger of young black people feeling so disenfranchised that they feel they've got nothing to contribute to society. This growing alienation has come into sharp focus following the failure of the legal system in the Chhokar case, she says. Qureshi says it is no coincidence that in Scotland no white person has ever been convicted of a murder of an Asian. She talks of previous cases which never made the front pages: Ahmed Sheikh, who died in 1990 after being attacked, and Niaz Ahmed Khan, who was brain-damaged and then died following a serious assault in 1992.

"People forget these cases. Niaz Ahmed Khan, an elderly man, was walking in a Glasgow park with a friend from England when he was attacked. Nobody helped him. His head was kicked like a football and they shouted racial abuse. He suffered terrible injuries and died a few months later. Nobody has ever been convicted and the murder was overlooked," says Qureshi. "Every day you hear adverts on the radio saying you can get two years for carrying a knife. But that's not the reality. The reality is you can get away with murder - especially if the person is black.

Back to Top

Sunday Herald Dec 3rd 2000
Scots justice only works for whites'

The family: Surjit Singh Chhokar's parents feel betrayed by the legal system after the second failure to convict their son's killer. But, as they tell Stephen Naysmith, this is far from the end of their battle

Darsham Chhokar frowns and struggles with his emotions as he explains how mistaken he was to argue that British justice was the best in the world. "I defended it for years. I believed in it. It was all a big lie. What option is left for people in our community? Are we to take the law into our own hands?" A large man, smartly suited with a voluminous beard, he is also a proud man. He apologises through an interpreter for having failed to replace two broken lightbulbs in the living room of the family home, near Carluke in Lanarkshire. Once houseproud, he can't seem to find the energy since his son died, he says.

Darsham is a proud man and as a Sikh his religion calls on him to combine piety with good acts. The religion stresses fairness and justice. Believers also carry a knife - a kirpan - as one of five key emblems of their faith. The kirpan is symbolic, but for Darsham it now carries a bitter significance. His only son, Surjit Singh Chhokar, was killed with a knife. Probably a kitchen knife, from a set which was on show in a Glasgow courtroom during the murder trial which ended last week.

Although there was overwhelming evidence that three men had gone armed to meet and attack Surjit on November 4, 1998, although there was evidence that two of them had, on the same night, conspired in the early hours to wash every stitch of clothing they wore, and disposed of the knife set, and although there have been two trials, nobody has been found guilty of the murder.

Darsham Chhokar is still searching for justice. But worse than that, he believes the principles of fairness he lives by have been denied by a legal system which treated him and his wife differently because they are Asian. "The police told us not to worry - three men had been arrested. They would go to prison. They would get life. Those words stick in my mind, and my wife's. It is what we believed in," he recalls. Once the police had investigated and three men had been charged, it seemed their belief would be vindicated. But last week's events have left Scotland looking inwards, wondering how the legal system could have so badly let the Chhokars down. "I once had a belief in British justice. They've destroyed it. I am a proud man and my people fight for justice. If this had been India or Pakistan I'd have been forced to avenge my son," he sighs. "Our hands are tied here," he mutters.

Darsham is not going to turn vigilante. But neither is he going to go away, and that has surprised many people. Surjit's parents didn't walk away when the first man tried for Surjit's murder walked free. Instead, the Chhokar Family Justice Campaign was launched. But even insiders in the campaign thought after the Crown Office failed last week for a second time to secure convictions - this time trying David Montgomery and Andrew Coulter, nephew of the first man tried, Ronnie - that the exhausted and heartbroken Chhokars might retire from the scene. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Until my body lies in a coffin, my every word will be 'I want justice'," Mr Chhokar insists, his voice shaking. "My son didn't stab himself. My every moment, every thought is filled with my son's screams. He comes in my dreams pleading for help, and asking me, 'What are you doing, Dad?'"

Darsham Chhokar and his wife are dignified, and speak with a quiet, but forceful anger. The only time this drops is when I ask who it is that they want answers from. Mr Chhokar's brow knits, his face seems to darken. After a moment his fury passes with what seems to be an explosive laugh. "I want answers from everybody!" he says. "Starting with the police and the prosecutors. I want the Lord Advocate, the minister for justice, even the First Minister to answer for this. These people have a responsibility to see that we receive justice. Not only us, but every family - because this keeps happening to our community. Surely this shouldn't be allowed to happen again to another family?"

Although the outcome of the two trials was the same, the experience for the Chhokars, both Punjabi speakers, was very different. They had sat through the first in ignorance of what was going on - neither speaks English and there was no attempt made to provide them with a translator. But the bereaved parents say it was worse, far worse, than that. They weren't told that the first trial was about to begin, or that only one of the three men charged, Ronnie Coulter, was to face charges. "We didn't even know where the court was, nobody had the decency to tell us. When we found out we went and they had the cheek to turn us away. Court officials said, 'You don't need to be here.' I told them, 'My son has been murdered. I want to see the trial.' They treated us like scum," Mr Chhokar recalls. "We watched as people came in, people went out. Only at the end, I understood the word 'guilty'."

But that was a cruel joke. Coulter had been convicted only of a reduced charge of assault. He had blamed the two other men for the crime - and at their trial last week they were acquitted of the murder, after they blamed him.  

Gurdan Chhokar, Surjit's mother, says the second trial was a repeat performance. "It was just the same except this time the authorities were polite. They are petrified and have been running behind us to keep us informed," she said. "In the first trial we weren't told a thing. Nobody gave us the opportunity. Why was this respect not given until after we got a spokesperson?"

The apologetic statements rushed out by Lord Advocate Colin Boyd, justice minister Jim Wallace and Strathclyde Police last week cut little ice with the Chhokars. Neither does the received wisdom that the case was not about race, as Surjit was killed in a local dispute over a stolen benefits cheque. "Why did they do this to my son? They wouldn't have done it to one of their own," Mrs Chhokar says. Her husband agrees: "It is fine for people to say he didn't die because of his colour. But people in the area have come to us and told us he was murdered because he was Asian." In any case, they say, the way they were treated subsequently was undoubtedly discriminatory. "They saw the colour of my skin and two people who couldn't speak English. Why was I not taken seriously? Is it because I am Asian? Because I am uneducated? I think you don't get justice in this country if you are not white or if you are not rich."

Undoubtedly the Chhokars are bitter. They feel betrayed. But their anger is not unthinking. They reject the idea that the law should be changed to allow the acquitted men to be tried again for murder. "That is not the answer. The Crown should have done the job the first time around. They had all this evidence, changing the law would be letting themselves off the hook."

One aspect provides some comfort. They have taken their son's case as far as they can - despite the fact that many in their community warned them from the start that it was a waste of time. His name will be remembered, though not as they would wish. When I ask how they want people to think of him, Darsham and Gurdan talk over each other, the words spilling out. "We know he was no angel, but he was a devoted son. He had a happy nature and laughed all the time. He was loved by everybody around him," Mrs Chhokar says with a sob. Mr Chhokar too is close to breaking down as he remembers the last time he spoke to his son. Surjit told him that he was going to focus on work and save, so he could come with his parents on a trip to India they had planned. "I was so happy. I said I am old, it is time for you to start taking life seriously." But when they went to India, the Chhokars took their son's ashes with them in a box. "He did come," Darsham says grimly.

Both now say they feel as if their lives are at an end. They are exhausted in body and spirit. But they will continue, they insist, to demand answers from the legal establishment, Darsham says "What's going on is a cover up. I don't want anything else but a public enquiry. Our son is dead while his killers are free to roam the streets. Asian people are told our community has the same rights as the white community. If the government of this country can't get us justice, who is supposed to?"

Back to Top

Nov 30th 2000
Motion submitted by Shona Robison
in support of the Chhokar Family 

"That this Parliament is concerned that since Surjit Singh Chhokar was murdered in November 1998, no one has been convicted of his murder; believes that this case highlights the institutional racism within the legal system in Scotland and; and supports the call from the Chhokar family for a full and independent public inquiry into all aspects of the case to begin the process of restoring public confidence in Scotland's justice system".

Back to Top

November 2000
Chhokars owed public inquiry

THE embarrassment of the Chhokar case for the Crown Office and fiscal service cannot be overstated. It has revealed a level of complacency, incompetence and unwillingness to address obvious problems that undermines the criminal justice process and erodes public confidence.

The affair is given an added edge by accusations of institutional racism, which may or may not be legitimate, but have encouraged some to regard Surjit Singh Chhokar as Scotland’s Stephen Lawrence, although the circumstances surrounding the actual death suggest it was no more than an ‘ordinary’ stabbing provoked by a row over a giro cheque.

This may sound callous to readers who do not inhabit the strata of society where such violent episodes are commonplace and often accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. Nonetheless, it may provide an insight into attitudes to life and death that percolates upwards among the professional classes whose job it is to hold the line.

This is a potential explanation of what has happened, but no excuse. It does not take a trained legal mind to recognise the inherent flaws in a series of events which have a man pleading not guilty to murder and being acquitted by a jury, only for his subsequent confession to be used in evidence at a later trial leading to the acquittal of two other men (originally arrested at the same time as the first) charged with the same murder.

No one will now answer for the killing and Chhokar’s parents are rightly indignant at the failings of the authorities, not only from a legal but also a humane perspective because of the way they were treated so insensitively as events ran their course. And there is no respite because, as Scotland on Sunday reveals today, the internal Crown Office report itself has indulged in a self-regarding cover-up by deciding that it is "not appropriate" for certain information to be divulged to the public.

Yet this information turns out to be less than startling. It is that the prosecutor did not feel able to talk to the Chhokar family in court during the first trial because the father was a potential witness in a future VAT fraud investigation for which she was also the prosecutor. Chhokar senior was not an accused person, simply one of a number of shop-owners to be supplied with goods by the targets of the investigation.

Why anyone would think this unfortunate, but unconnected, overlap should prevent the prosecutor explaining the mechanics of their son’s murder trial to the Chhokars is not clear. Why the Crown Office, in a report intended to lay bare all the circumstances, should think it necessary to conceal such facts is equally unclear, unless it was simple embarrassment at having to admit to such a lame excuse for snubbing the Chhokars.

Something is rotten here. The Crown Office, however high and mighty its personnel, cannot be a law unto itself. Lord Hardie, Lord Advocate at the time of the first trial, haughtily slapped down Lord McCluskey’s sharply-worded criticism of the way the original murder prosecution had been brought to his court. With Hardie now elevated to the bench, the current Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, is trying to clean up his mess with a judicial inquiry into the legal situation, and a separate inquiry into how the Chhokars were treated. Both inquiries will be held in private before presenting formal reports.

Is this satisfactory, given the track record of the Crown Office in providing all the facts as exposed by this newspaper today? The conclusion must be that it is not. Instead, a full public inquiry would probably serve the purposes of deflating conspiracy theorists who see racist overtones in every action and also prick the arrogance of the Crown Office in thinking it can pick and choose what the public is entitled to know. A public inquiry, which the Scottish Executive is resisting, would be a vote of confidence in the public’s right to know and an assertion that justice - as far is any justice is possible in the Chhokar case now - has to be seen to be done.

Back to Top

Evening Times November 2000
Family Fury as Two Cleared of Murder
By Iain Duff

TWO men were today cleared of the murder of waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar. David Montgomery (22) was found not guilty of stabbing the 32-year-old father of two to death. His co-accused Andrew Coulter (19) was also cleared of murder, but found guilty of a reduced charge of assault.

There were gasps in the packed courtroom as Montgomery walked from the dock, and the verdict sparked fury among the victim´s family. Coulter was found guilty of assaulting Mr Chhokar repeatedly with a wooden bat. He was led from the court in handcuffs to resume a six-year sentence he is serving for another offence. Twelve months was added to that for the Chhokar assault. The jury found Montgomery not guilty by a majority verdict. Coulter was unanimously found guilty of assault.

Mr Chhokar´s family sobbed in the public gallery as the verdict was announced. Outside the court, they launched a stinging attack on the handling of the case by the police and Crown Office. They demanded an urgent meeting with the Scottish Executive. And they called for a public inquiry. Family spokesman Aamer Anwar said: "Today a crime was committed in the High Court in the name of justice. For the second time in two years nobody has been found guilty. There are two systems of justice at work in this country - one for whites and a very different one for blacks and the poor. The Chhokar family believe that they would not have been treated this way had their son been white."

Surjit´s life came to a violent end outside the home of his girlfriend Liz Bryce in the village of Overtown on November 4 1998. The High Court in Glasgow heard how he smiled up at Liz as he approached her house after a shift at a local Indian restaurant. But when three men appeared from the shadows, she ran to his aid. Armed with a spade she shouted and swore at the attackers to leave him alone. But she was powerless to stop him being dragged across the street, stabbed through the heart, and left to die in a pool of blood.

The Chhokar case has been likened to the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in London. It resulted in an inquiry finding the Metropolitan Police guilty of "institutional racism". Mr Anwar added today: "The Chhokars did not want their son to be the Scottish Stephen Lawrence. Did the police and Crown believe Surjit´s life was so cheap that his family would go away quietly? In two years they have not been able to grieve for the loss of a son, but they are determined to carry on with their fight for justice."

Mr Anwar said the family wanted to see the three men accused of the killing - Ronnie Coulter, his nephew Andrew Coulter, and David Montgomery - to face perjury charges. He said the Chhokars also wanted the public inquiry to look into the handling of other attacks on coloured people in Scotland.

It emerged today that the family snubbed approaches from the Lord Advocate to meet last night ahead of today´s verdict.

Back to Top

Indian Express: Thursday, July 15, 1999
Victims of Scotland's justice are home, with their son's ashes 

By Sonal Manchanda  

NEW DELHI, JULY 14: His old shoulders are weighed down with the burden of his son's ashes. And grief. Twice betrayed first by fate and then by the Scottish justice system Darsham Singh Chhokar is a broken man. In India to perform the last rites of his young son, who was brutally murdered in Scotland seven months ago, Chokkar says: ``I have come here to immerse my son's ashes in Kiratpur Sahib. After that there will be prayers at the gurdwara so that his soul may rest in peace. However, we will find peace only after his murderers are punished.''

``He had promised last year that he would accompany me to India this summer. He was seven and my daughter Manjit was 12 years old when we left India. He has kept his promise,'' he says pointing to the tightly clutched bag in his hands, which holds the box containing his ashes and thick files chronicling the entire case.

Thirty-two-year-old Surjit Singh Chhokar was stabbed to death on the night of November 4 in Overtown in Lanarkshire. He was married and had two daughters. However, a year before he was killed he had separated from his wife and spent most of his free time with his Scottish girlfriend Liz Bryce. The night he was killed, Surjit was returning from the restaurant where he worked. He had stopped at his girlfriend's house, which was minutes away from his own. Shesmiled at him from the window and moved to open the door when she heard screams. She ran back to the window and saw three men assaulting him out on the street.

Within days the police arrested three local men. However, out of them, only one Ronnie Coulter was brought to trial. Though the jury found him guilty of a reduced charge of assault, the Crown did not move for a sentence. After serving three months in prison during the period of the trial, Coulter was let off. 

Chhokar had moved to Britain in the seventies with his wife Gurdan and two children. His father had served in the British Army during the Raj and he had also wanted to join it. However, he could not as he was not fluent inEnglish. ``I had heard so much about the British system of justice and their fairness but now I realise that there is one system of justice for whites and another for Asians. They did not provide us with an interpreter for the proceedings even though they know that we were not conversant with the language,'' says Chhokar.

Meanwhile, shock waves reverberated through the entire community at the injustice meted out to the family. They rallied around the family in its hour of need. Months of rallies and public meetings by not only Asians but also the whites, signature campaigns and representations to Parliament, finally forced the government to reopen the case. ``At first we did not think it was a racist murder. However, now we are not ruling out anything. Because even though one of the accused was tried and let-off, no one has been able to find out the motive. All we know is that our son was the only Asian living in that area, now there is no one. Neither will there be because the entire community's faith isshattered,'' says Chhokar.

``We are not fair-skinned like them, that is why no one was punished. You know that is a very important factor there,'' explains Chhokar, patiently. He admits that the trial of the other two accused Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery is beginning next month, only because of the public pressure.

The family also hopes that there will be a public inquiry into why Ronnie Coulter was let off and the shabby manner in which the investigations were conducted. Says Aamer Anwar, an anti-racism campaigner and spokesperson for Chhokar Family Justice Campaign: ``If three Asians had killed a white man, they would have got a life sentence. However, since it was the other way round, nothing happened. Maybe now the whole world will realise that the British justice which is lauded in the entire world, is nothing but a farce. ''

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. 

Back to Top

Victims of crime in Scotland are to be given a say in the criminal justice system for the first time under a new strategy unveiled by Scottish justice minister Jim Wallace.

On a dark winter's night Surjit Singh Chhokar got out of his car and slammed the door. It had been a long shift at the restaurant and in one hand he carried a takeaway curry and in the other a bottle of Irn Bru. He was a Scots Asian.

The parents of an Asian man who died violently branded the Scottish criminal justice system "institutionally racist" yesterday after watching two men charged with their son's killing walk free from court.

The parents of an Asian man who died violently branded the Scottish criminal justice system "institutionally racist" yesterday after watching two men charged with their son's killing walk free from court.

The father of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence yesterday backed a campaign set up to seek justice for an Asian man who was stabbed to death.

Darsham Singh Chhokar was not told when the trial of his son's killer was about to begin. He and his family learnt the details from relatives who had read about it in a newspaper.

Scotland's senior law officer has attacked a leading judge as 'uninformed and ill-advised' in an unprecedented row over a murder with similarities to the Stephen Lawrence case.

Back to Top