Murder of Rohit Duggal
{{Short description|1992 murder in England}}
{{Orphan|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
Rohit Duggal (21 May 1976{{cite web |last1=Victoria & Albert Museum |title=Remember Rohit Duggal |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1260320/remember-rohit-duggal-poster-greenwich-mural-workshop/ |website=V&A Explore the Collections |date=1992 |publisher=Victoria & Albert Museum}} - 11 July 1992) was a 16-year-old British Asian boy murdered in July 1992 in Eltham in southeast London. Peter Thompson, a then-17-year-old white boy,{{cite news |last1=Savill |first1=Richard |title=Sixth-former is stabbed to death in race attack |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/157104005/ |access-date=6 April 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=24 April 1993}} was sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder. The event was widely described as a racist hate crime and led to protests against the British National Party. Duggal's murder has been compared to and linked to those of Rolan Adams and Stephen Lawrence, both Black teenagers murdered in southeast London in racially motivated crimes the early 1990s.
Biography
Rohit Duggal was of Indian descent,{{cite book |last1=Hewitt |first1=Roger |title=White Blacklash and the Politics of Multiculturalism |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139443524 |page=50 }} but was born and raised in Britain.{{cite news |title=The other Christmas speech: WHO NEEDS THE QUEEN? ; Channels 4's alternative seasonal address has become a festive tradition for non-Royalists. As Jamie Oliver prepares to deliver this year's version, we look back at his 12 predecessors: [First Edition] |work=The Independent |date=22 December 2005 |location=London |pages=12, 13 |quote="...Rolan Adams, Stephen Lawrence, Rohit Duggal, Quddus Ali all of them born and bred in Britain, all killed by people who objected to their presence in Britain, based on the colour of their skin."}} According to an interview with his uncle, Duggal was an only son and he was brought up by his mother, while his father left the family while he was young. He was described as a "keen cricketer" who hoped to play for Kent.{{cite news |last1=Cicutti |first1=Nick |last2=Ghazi |first2=Polly |title=Climate of fear surrounds racist shop of hate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/258398697/ |work=The Observer |date=16 May 1993}} Duggal attended Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, which was predominantly white.{{cite news |last1=Honigsbaum |first1=Mark |title=The New Racist Fears on London's Streets |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/723704260/? |access-date=6 April 2025 |work=Evening Standard |date=24 May 1993}} He had passed his GCSEs shortly before his murder.
Murder
On 11 July 1992, Duggal was returning home from a party accompanied by a group of white male and female friends. He and his friends stopped at a kebab shop on Well Hall Road in Eltham to order chips and ask for directions to a taxi stand. A group of white youth, described as a gang, began to harass Duggal as he and his friends left the shop. Duggal's group was blocked by traffic from crossing the street; Duggal attempted calm the situation and then ran across the road when one of the gang members brandished a knife. Duggal was pursued, accosted and stabbed through the heart. He died shortly after.{{cite news |last1=Schoon |first1=Nicholas |last2=Walker |first2=Nick |title=Police appeal for calm after racist murder: Third teenager killed in London borough |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/police-appeal-for-calm-after-racist-murder-third-teenager-killed-in-london-borough-1456991.html |work=The Independent |date=23 April 1993}}{{cite news |title=Violence with Violence |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsXmwdFidcg |work=World in Action |publisher=ITV |date=1993}}
Trial and reaction
Only one person, Peter Thompson, was ever tried, despite reports that a second associate had also pursued Duggal.{{cite report |last=Haacke |first=Carl |date=April 1997 |title=Racist Violence in the United Kingdom |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/u/uk/uk974.pdf |work=Human Rights Watch |location=Helsinki |publisher= |docket= |access-date=}}{{cite news |last1=Sekar |first1=Satish |last2=Peachey |first2=Paul |title=Spate of racist stabbings in Eltham had gone unpunished |url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/crime/spate-of-racist-stabbings-in-eltham-had-gone-unpunished-6284643.html |access-date=6 April 2025 |work=The Independent |date=3 January 2012}} Thompson was found guilty and sentenced to life in 1993.{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=David |title=Lawrence case: the police blunders and ones who will not face justice |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/lawrence-case-the-police-blunders-and-ones-who-will-not-face-justice-3p5h687pzdg?region=global |work=The Sunday Times |date=4 January 2012}}
The killing was described as motiveless by Metropolitan Police. However, the Crown Prosecution Service named racism as a motive during the trial.{{cite news |title=And the racist killings go on |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/24/lawrence.ukcrime5 |work=The Guardian |date=24 February 1999}} According to an activist from Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks, as Duggal fled his assailants the gang members repeatedly screamed "get the paki",{{cite news |title=Stephen Lawrence murder: Fighting against racism in south east London |access-date=7 April 2025 |work=Socialist Worker |issue=2285 |date=10 January 2012 |url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/stephen-lawrence-murder-fighting-against-racism-in-south-east-london/}} and during the trial, the defendant had to be instructed to stop referring to Duggal by the same term.{{cite news |last1=Kimber |first1=Charlie |title=A horrific string of racist attacks in the area where Stephen Lawrence was murdered |url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/a-horrific-string-of-racist-attacks-in-the-area-where-stephen-lawrence-was-murdered/ |access-date=6 April 2025 |work=Socialist Worker |date=9 November 2002}} In addition, Duggal's memorial service was reportedly interrupted by neo-Nazis.{{cite news |title=Stephen Lawrence's killing exposed the cops' racism |url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/stephen-lawrence-s-killing-exposed-the-cops-racism/ |work=Socialist Worker |issue=2600 |date=17 April 2018}}
Though he was not known to be a member, Thompson was found to be carrying leaflets from the British National Party at the time of his arrest. Duggal's murder was one of numerous racially motivated attacks and murders of Black and Asian people in southeast London which sparked public outrage and protests against the British National Party.{{cite news |last1=Prasad |first1=Yuri |title=How we beat the Nazi BNP in the 1990s—and can beat Tommy Robinson today |url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/how-we-beat-the-nazi-bnp-in-the-1990s-and-can-beat-tommy-robinson-today/ |work=Socialist Worker |issue=2924 |date=24 September 2024}} 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence was attacked and stabbed to death by a gang in a racial hate crime in 1993, also on Well Hall Road, only 200 yards from where Duggal was murdered. Peter Thompson was alleged to have ties to a gang run by Neil and Jamie Acourt, who were among Lawrence's accused killers.{{cite news |title=Stephen Lawrence murder: The gangster of Eltham |url=https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/stephen-lawrence-murder-the-gangster-of-eltham/ |access-date=6 April 2025 |work=Socialist Worker |issue=2285 |date=10 January 2012}} Lawrence's murder, as well as the earlier racially motivated murder of 15-year-old Rolan Adams in Thamesmead in 1991 both drew comparisons to Duggal's case by the public and the Anti-Racist Alliance, with all three cases being cited by the anti-BNP protesters.
References
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Category:1990s murders in London
Category:1992 murders in the United Kingdom
Category:British people of Indian descent
Category:Crime in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Category:Deaths by person in London
Category:Deaths by stabbing in London
Category:Hate crimes in Europe
Category:History of the Royal Borough of Greenwich