American job offer for race row surgeon withdrawn

One of Scotland's leading transplant surgeons, who claimed he was a victim of racial discrimination, has had a job offer from a top American university withdrawn.

Rahul Jindal, 46, who heads Glasgow's kidney transplant unit at the Western Infirmary and is jointly employed by Glasgow University to train new surgeons, announced that he intended to move to America following allegations that he was twice passed over for promotion because of his Indian origin.

Mr Jindal claims he was promised a professorship when he came to Glasgow in 1999 from Indianapolis, where he also alleged he was deprived of promotion because of his race.

When the professorship failed to materialise, he lodged a discrimination complaint with an employment tribunal. Glasgow University denies racism and a spokesman said yesterday that it regarded the matter as still active and could not comment further.

Mr Jindal had hinted earlier this week that he would abandon his complaint after it emerged he had been offered a job by the University of South Alabama, which he was expected to take up this August.

But on Thursday it emerged that the Alabama authorities had withdrawn the offer, after discovering he had failed to disclose his legal claims against Glasgow University or allegations made against him by previous employers in Indiana.

"He was not straight with us," said Richard Teplick, chief of medical staff at the American university's College of Medicine. The offer was withdrawn after the Mobile Register newspaper in Alabama raised questions about the doctor's past.

Yesterday, Mr Jindal said he still intended to move to the US this autumn. There are fears his departure could lead to the collapse of the Western Infirmary's kidney transplant unit, where he was instrumental in encouraging more Asians to be organ donors.