UK Police admit lying about anti-Sikh incident, officer faces gross misconduct hearing

The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) have confirmed an incident of a West Midlands Police officer removing and then stamping on the patka (religious head covering) of a Sikh man took place, after originally claiming it was false.

Following the incident in October last year, which saw a Sikh man detained for an alleged traffic violation, panthic (Sikh community/path based) organisations circulated information about the hate crime whilst calling for a mass protest against WMP. As reported by the likes of the BBC, at the time the IOPC claimed the allegations were false, but last week (24.08.22) confirmed CCTV footage proves the incident did take place as described by the panthic orgs.

At the time, WMP stated the removal of the head covering carried out in a Perry Barr (Birmingham) police suite was done to search for weapons, whilst denying the stamp altogether. However, the Sikh man did not have any items of clothing removed for a weapons search and the suggestion he could be hiding weapons in the thin cloth material tightly wrapped to his head for a patka was deemed ridiculous. There were also calls for the police to immediately share CCTV and body camera footage to back their claims that the allegations of an anti-Sikh hate crime were false.

A month after the incident and after protests, as reported by Sikh PA at the time the officer in question was given a “gross misconduct notice”. Six other officers with him were also each given a “misconduct notice” as investigations continued. At the time  IOPC Regional Director, Derrick Campbell said the misconduct notice given to seven WMP officers “does not necessarily mean that misconduct proceedings will follow. It is only once our investigation is complete that we will make decisions about whether or not the officers have a case to answer and should face disciplinary proceedings.”

Nearly a year later with no details as to why the investigations took so long, the IOPC have stated the officer that snatched the patka off – Kashif Shafiq, believed to be of Muslim background – will face an official gross misconduct hearing. The other six involved will not face hearings although four of them “would benefit from taking part in reflective practice” according to media reports. The IOPC also admitted the incident caused community tensions but did not acknowledge any fault on their part for originally claiming Sikh groups were lying about what took place.

A misconduct panel will now be put together by West Midlands Police. Although no date has been confirmed for the hearing, Sikh groups across the UK are anxiously awaiting a suitable outcome for the act of anti-Sikh hate.

With this update, many are wondering why the Metropolitan Police are yet to give any update on complaints about one of their officers punching a Sikh man in the face in an unprovoked attack during the 2020 #FarmersProtest #KisaanRally in London, which legal group Kaurs Legal have pushed for.

Sikh PA will provide updates on these stories as soon as possible.