Indian Commonwealth official wins unfair dismissal case in UK

An Indian official who worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London has won an employment tribunal claim that he was unlawfully forced out of his job and is entitled to thousands of pounds in damages.

Ram Venuprasad had brought the case against Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland for unfairly disciplining him over leaks of information to the media, which he denied responsibility for. The 45-year-old's lawyers had argued that the former deputy head of office at the Secretariat had been "marked out" by Scotland after he raised concerns over her decision to spend 50,000 pounds on a garden party shortly after she had taken office in 2016.

The specially-convened employment tribunal concluded that Venuprasad was unlawfully forced out of his job and the disciplinary processes used against the former senior civil servant were "seriously flawed", The Times reported. The ruling from the tribunal, held at the Secretariat headquarters in Marlbor- ough House in London, came soon after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) concluded on April 20. "Despite receiving the judgment last week, I did not want to speak publicly until the conclusion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London," Venuprasad told. The Indian citizen who has lived in Britain for 20 years hopes to find work at another international organisation but had been told by head-hunters that the case would hinder his chances.