Revealed: the turmoil of Tarique Ghaffur

Tarique Ghaffur, the assistant commissioner whose claim of race discrimination sent shockwaves through Scotland Yard, has been coping with turmoil in his private life, the Evening Standard can reveal.

In the months that led up to his launching a case against London's police hierarchy the 53-year-old's marriage came under severe stress. The circumstances, which allegedly involved rows with his wife, Shehla, and public appearances with a glamorous companion, have led some to question the thinking behind his decision to take on Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and the Metropolitan Police Authority. The drama in his professional life was compounded by a personal crisis, it was said.

The temperature of what some commentators are calling the Yard's "race war" appears to rise almost daily. Lawyers acting for Mr Ghaffur are expected to lodge a legal action for discrimination within a week or so, accompanied by a claim for substantial damages.

Sir Ian is said to be determined to fight the allegation with everything in his power. The same can be said for members of the police authority, who are outraged that the action has labelled them racists. One, Green party member Jenny Jones, told the Standard: "It's going to be bloody."

The controversy threatens to taint the Yard's carefully-nurtured policy of diversity with the risk of damaging both community relations and recruitment from ethnic minorities.

The idea that this could have been triggered by a man such as Tarique Ghaffur, who has spent most of his career as an icon of Asian achievement, has appalled even his friends in the force. They, like many others, are asking how could it have come to this.

Mr Ghaffur has had to try to manage severe pressures over the past year. His wife Shehla lives at the family home in Stretford, Manchester, with the couple's two teenage children. Hehad been travelling to Manchester from his London flat at weekends.

But towards the end of last summer friends noticed a change in his routine. One said the couple began arguing and Mr Ghaffur "hardly visited".

Last April Mrs Ghaffur's mother, to whom she was very close, died. She was grief-stricken, the friend, said and Mr Ghaffur made more frequent trips to Manchester. "Tarique was such a good guy, very respectable and gentlemanly," she said. "Shehla does not want to divorce him because of the kids. It's not in her nature to be spiteful, but she is clearly devastated."

In London, Mr Ghaffur has been seen often with a woman called Rohina. An acquaintance who saw them together at a function said: "She is very attractive and they are clearly very fond of each other."

Mr Ghaffur refused to talk about this woman or any of the issues in his pending discrimination claim. When the Standard approached Mrs Ghaffur, she denied there was any separation from her husband and suggested false rumours about their marriage had been spread by his enemies.

"The Yard is trying to ruin my husband's career," she said. "They are trying to get him out, that's what these rumours are all about. People have always said things like this about him. I have worked very hard in helping him build his career. He has worked hard to get where he is today."

That last point, at least, is incontestable. The Ghaffur family is Muslim and has its origins in the Punjab. Mr Ghaffur's parents emigrated to Uganda then sought refuge in Britain after fleeing Idi Amin's purge of Asians.

Tarique was a bright student who passed A-levels then the police entrance examinations for the Greater Manchester force. To support himself as a student at Stretford Technical College he sold clothes from a stall at Accrington market.

As a newly-qualified constable, aged 19, he presented himself for duty at Salford police station. The desk sergeant refused to let him in. It was 1974 and Life on Mars values ruled. "They had to get the inspector down to vouch for me," Mr Ghaffur recalled years later.

He was only the second non-white officer on Manchester's 6,000-strong force and as he swiftly rose to sergeant and then inspector he found himself with the description that was to dog his entire career - "highest-ranking non-white officer".

It followed him to London when he was appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Yard in 1999 and it was heard again during his confrontation with Sir Ian Blair. Surprisingly, perhaps, Mr Ghaffur has never objected and those who know him say he revelled in his unique fame. "He loves being Britain's top Asian cop," an informed member of London's Asian community said.

"He never shunned publicity - quite the reverse - and he was always available for people who wanted to talk to him. There is a lot of respect for him among ethnic minorities."

Incidentally, Tarique is also a ruthless squash player.

In 2000 he was borough commander in Westminster and, a year later, promoted to Assistant Commissioner. His course was set fair for a job at the very top, it seemed. Then his dizzying ascent began to stall. He was unsuccessful in at least two attempts to secure a chief constable's position outside London. Then, in 2005, he applied for the post of deputy commissioner at the Yard.

This, insiders say, was the turning point that led to the final falling out with Sir Ian Blair. Three men went for the deputy job; Tarique Ghaffur, Tim Godwin, another Assistant Commissioner in the Met, and Paul Stephenson, the chief constable of Lancashire.

Mr Stephenson was given the job. His knighthood, announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, is said to have added to Mr Ghaffur's disappointment.

It was after Mr Ghaffur failed to secure the deputy commissioner role that he began putting together his dossier which, it is believed, contains emails, notes of conversations and other material to support his claim of racial discrimination.

Central to his case is the claim that Sir Ian and Home Office official Marjorie Wallace conspired to strip him of his responsibilities for security at the 2012 Olympics. Their motives, his lawyers will say, were based on discrimination.

But the case for the defence is already being compiled and, informed sources say, it will be a strong one. The question at issue is this: did Mr Ghaffur's career stall because, as he claims, he was not part of Sir Ian Blair's "golden circle" of white officers or was it simply a question of ability?

Jenny Jones, the Green party member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, was a member of the panel that interviewed candidates for the deputy commissioner job in 2005.

She told the Standard: "I'm afraid Mr Ghaffur was not a strong candidate. His responses were not acute and he didn't even come close to the best candidate. There was no question of racial bias in this. He just wasn't anywhere near as good as Paul Stephenson.

"Frankly, I'm very angry that this case has branded people on the MPA racists. We have 23 members and six of them are from ethnic minorities - do you think they would tolerate racist behaviour? It's a nonsense.

"We have a proven commitment to promoting people from ethnic minorities and women. If an Asian person was among two equal candidates in line for a job the Asian person would get it.

"I don't understand Tarique Ghaffur. He has one of the top jobs in the country. For him to make these claims is ludicrous. Not everyone can be commissioner or deputy."

Ms Jones said that in naming Len Duvall, chairman of the authority, Mr Ghaffur had cast a slur that could not be allowed to rest. "That was a step too far," she said. "Any politician has to fight that. You can't survive with that hanging-over you. It's going to be bloody."

Sir Ian Blair can also be expected to fight back hard. Informed sources at Scotland Yard say Mr Ghaffur had become a loose cannon since failing to secure the deputy commissioner's job. Sir Ian - and Home Office ministers - were irritated by his sudden announcements on Olympic security, including plans to use biometrics testing on workers and foreign firearms officers to help Scotland Yard counter terrorist threats.

Then he went head-to-head with Sir Ian over the 42-day detention limit. Despite the fact that the commissioner was backing the proposal, Mr Ghaffur voiced his concern and opposition. It was a climactic move in a long-running and bitter conflict.

When the race discrimination blow fell, not everyone was surprised. But some at the Yard were piqued by his action because it is widely believed he had already been promoted as far as he deserved to go.

His successes include his role in running the Specialist Crime Directorate, particularly around Operation Trident which investigates gun crime. He also made a strong impression after the 7/7 terrorist attacks by engaging positively with the Muslim community. Yet senior police insiders say they struggle to pinpoint an area where he has been personally responsible for a major success.

One said: "He is very good at claiming credit but there are issues around how some of these things get presented. I think it is true that he has some very good people around him but that is part of the trick that everyone has to perform.

"It is difficult with Tarique, you cannot say he introduced such and such or was particularly good at running one operation."

At Westminster where he claimed a major fall in crime, there are doubts over his delivery. Some say the performance of the borough during his time there was "middle of the road" while, in fact, people who came later achieved more spectacular results with a harder nosed approach.

One senior officer said: "Tarique is very clever and has some great ideas. He is cerebral and strategic but sometimes you have to be more practical and get out there and produce results."

Mr Ghaffur will doubtless counter this assessment, although his main preoccupation now may not be proving that he has been brilliantly successful, but that he has been held back by racism.

The subject has been on his mind for years. When he first came to London he told the Standard racism was always an issue and he couldn't ignore it.

He said: "My secret has been not to internalise things, so if things are happening to me - I don't just say this is because of who I am - I try to understand what the issues are." Something, somewhere made him change his mind, it seems.

But a lot has changed in Tarique Ghaffur's life in the past year or so.