Top lawyer tipped to be first Asian judge dies at 61
Plane bomb scare ended advocate’s hopes of career on Scottish bench
A LEADING lawyer once fined over an aircraft bomb scare has died of sepsis in hospital.
Advocate Dr Raj Jandoo, 61, also served as a part-time sheriff and was at one point tipped to be Scotland’s first Asian judge.
He delivered a hardhitting report into the handling of a murder trial in which the police and prosecuting authorities were accused of institutional racism.
Jandoo, of Edinburgh, passed away at the city’s Royal Infirmary two weeks ago. His death certificate also reveals he suffered from alcoholic liver disease and lung cancer.
A private funeral was held at Linn Crematorium in Glasgow last week.
In 2005, he was fined £2500 after being convicted of endangering an aircraft and frightening fellow passengers on a flight from Edinburgh to Lewis, captained by Alastair Forrest.
Stornoway Sheriff Court heard Jandoo was on his way to sit at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court in North Uist when he was overheard making what one passenger described as
“inappropriate” remarks about a bomb during a mobile phone conversation.
The conviction effectively ended his career on the bench.
Four years earlier, the advocate had published a report into the police and Crown’s handling of a murder investigation in Lanarkshire.
Indian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar was stabbed to death in Wishaw in 1998. But after three men were cleared of the killing in two separate High Court trials a probe was ordered. Jandoo’s subsequent report accused the police and prosecutors of institutional racism.
It paved the way for a fresh approach by the authorities to minority communities.
In 2013, Jandoo was declared bankrupt with debts of more than £140,000.
Later that year, he was in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on breach of the peace charges. He was ordered to do unpaid community work after a disturbance in which he called his wife a “bitch”.
The Faculty of Advocates declined to comment on his death.
A legal source said Jandoo had the potential to be a major figure on the Scottish legal scene.
He added: “But what happened on that flight to Stornoway effectively ended his career.”