Scots police 'branded institutionally racist'

Scotland's largest police force is expected to be branded "institutionally racist" in a report into the murder of Asian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar.

Strathclyde Police's decision to rule out a racial motive in the early stages of its investigation into the killing has been singled out for criticism by Dr Raj Jandoo, leading one of two inquiries into the case, according to the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

Sources within the Labour party reportedly told the newspaper that Dr Randoo was also set to clear the Crown Office of overt racism in its handling of the case. He is set to cite incompetence and weaknesses in the system for the failures in the prosecution of the case and the Crown Office's dealings with Mr Chhokar's family.

Nobody has been convicted of the murder of Mr Chhokar, who was stabbed to death in Overtown, near Wishaw, Lanarkshire, in 1998. Three men who admitted being at the scene of the crime were later prosecuted in separate trials, but all were acquitted after blaming each other for the killing. Ronnie Coulter, 32, from Wishaw, claimed in the original trial in March 1999 that his cousin Andrew Coulter, 19, from Wishaw, and David Montgomery, 23, from Motherwell, were responsible for the killing. Trial judge Lord McCluskey described the Crown's decision to put only one of the trio in the dock as "extraordinary".

At a second trial in November last year, Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery were also cleared of the killing, although Coulter was jailed for a year for the lesser crime of assault. Dr Jandoo's inquiry, one of two set up at the conclusion of the second trial, was designed to review how prosecutors liaised with the Chhokar family and address concerns that they were not kept up-to-date with events.

At the conclusion of last year's trial, Strathclyde Police insisted its investigation into Mr Chhokar's death had been "intense, thorough and professional" and maintained the killing had not been racially motivated. The term "institutional racism" was first used against the Metropolitan Police by the Macpherson inquiry into the death of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence and has been the subject of fierce debate ever since.