Top Indian community members Raminder Singh Ranger and Anil Kumar Bhanot stripped of their honours by King Charles

An Indian-origin member (peer) of the upper house of the UK Parliament and another prominent British Indian individual have been stripped of their Order of the British Empire honours, officials said.

The Commander of the British Empire (CBE) honour of Raminder Singh Ranger, a Conservative Party peer and founder of UK-based consumer goods company Sun Mark, was “cancelled and annulled” by King Charles III, for reportedly “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.

The UK government also stripped Anil Kumar Bhanot of the Officer of the British Empire award, which he was conferred for his services to the Hindu community and interfaith relations in June 2010. Bhanot is associated with the Hindu Council UK.

A spokesperson for Raminder, known as Lord Rami Ranger, termed the decision “unjust” and said Ranger will challenge it.

Lord Ranger was awarded the CBE for his services to British business and the Asian community by the late Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honours list of December 2015. It is the third-highest honour in the Order of the British Empire.

The decision to cancel it follows a probe by the House of Lords, which concluded last year that he had breached the parliamentary Code of Conduct relating to “bullying and harassment”. However, the Forfeiture Committee of the UK Cabinet Office does not specify its reasons behind its recommendation to cancel the honour.

“The King has directed that the appointment of Raminder Singh, Baron Ranger to be a Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated December 31, 2015, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order,” an official public notice said.

Lord Ranger’s spokesperson added that he is ‘devastated’ over the matter and said the Forfeiture Committee reviewed past matters he had already addressed through apologies and other measures.

“Lord Ranger is devastated that the CBE awarded to him for his services to British business and for promoting community cohesion has been taken away. The Forfeiture Committee has re-visited a number of matters that had already been dealt with and for which Lord Ranger apologised, undertook rehabilitative training around his use of language, and came off social media,” the spokesperson said.

According to the statues, an honour can be withdrawn if an individual is found guilty of a criminal offence, behaviour which results in censure by a regulatory or a professional body, or any other behaviour that is deemed to bring the honours system into disrepute.