Jasper and (below) Karen

London, March 7: The most senior race adviser to Ken Livingstone, Lee Jasper, 49, has been forced to resign from his £120,000 a year post after the publication of his sexually charged emails sent to a married Indian woman, Karen Chouhan.

It has emerged that two organisations on which Karen, a race worker aged 50 serves as board member, received substantial grants on Jasper’s recommendation.

Although Jasper and Karen have denied improper behaviour, Britain’s newspapers have been posing the crude question of whether there was cash for sex.

Karen hit the headlines late last year — as reported in The Telegraph — when the Chouhans were declared “Britain’s brainiest family” when she and her daughter and son — Chhaya, 17, and Amar, 10 — got the highest score in a nationwide contest organised by Nintendo, a computer games company.

The Chouhans from Leicester won a £20,000-prize intended for the children’s university fees and other educational costs. When she won last year, a thrilled Karen had said: “We’re both amazed and speechless. This is such an amazing prize and Chhaya and Amar will benefit so much from the free university fees.”

Her husband, J. Chouhan, who works for De Montfort University in Leicester, played an important role, too. He cheered from the sidelines when his wife and children won the London finals. With him was the eldest Chouhan child, Ashok, who works for Carphone Warehouse in Leicester.

Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine had commented: “We all know what an expensive necessity education can be so this is an amazing prize for the family.”

But fame can be fickle, as the British media are now wondering about the precise nature of Jasper’s relationship with Karen. The scandal comes against the background of mayoral elections in May when Livingstone, who has already been elected twice, is seeking a third term in office.

An attack on Jasper, in whose ability Livingstone has expressed full confidence, is also an attack on the Labour mayor who is being challenged this time by the maverick Tory journalist and MP, Boris Johnson.

Among newspapers, the Evening Standard in London has led the way in scrutinising the grants made to various race bodies in the capital at Jasper’s behest.

One of the organisations of which Karen is a board member — the 1990 Trust — received a £65,000 grant. A second group, the Black Londoners’ Forum, was also funded by City Hall.

Jasper helped the 1990 Trust, and the Black Londoners’ Forum — of which Karen was a director — to receive more than £1,00,000 in City Hall grants. In total the two organisations were awarded £6,38,000 from the mayor’s office.

There is no evidence that Karen’s husband knew of the emails his wife was receiving from Jasper, who is married with nine children.

In one, Jasper, using Afro-Caribbean metaphors, talks about wanting to “honey-glaze” Karen before a “passionate embrace” and in another he talks about his love of her “thighs, bum and belly”.

At no time did Jasper declare his relationship with Karen or any interest in either organisation. She was also appointed chair of the mayor’s prestigious London Equalities Commission on Jasper’s recommendation.

The emails — sent on Friday, 23 June 2006 in the space of less than an hour — show the friendship between Jasper and Karen, papers have noted.

In one message sent using his City Hall email on an official trip, Jasper said: “Happy birthday my gorgeous, wonderful, sexy Kazzi... Darling, I want to whisk you away to a deserted island beach, honey-glaze you, [and] let you cook slowly before a torrid and passionate embrace...

“You are indeed greatly loved up, magnificently appreciated and at the moment sorely missed. Once back, its candles and dinner and a special prezzie from Jamaica.”

Jasper signed his email: “Your man, General Jasper.”

In a second email sent later the same day, Jasper wrote: “How many ways do I love thee? As the air I breathe and first gentle dew on a golden summer morn. As much as the Brazil national football team or aki and saltfish. I love thee feet, ankles, legs, thighs, bum and belly, arms, head and brain.

“But most of all I love you in a flaming red sari, bangles, chains or failing that in a bikini!”

Karen emailed back to say: “Now you made me cry,” and “you’re the joke. Why do I bother? Will I be bothered ever again.”

Jasper replied six minutes later: “I am bothered, look at me, do I look bothered nah.” Two minutes after that message he emailed: “Don’t be sad and crying baby...Remember who loves yah.”

The email prompted a response within two minutes from Karen who said: “You can’t possibly, that’s why I’m upset.”

Karen has since explained the emails: “There is a close relationship, that’s for sure, but there’s never been an affair. There is a very close bond. We’re often together, we’re often seen together, but I am a happily married woman.”

She described the sexual language in the emails as an “aberration” and “just banter”. She said: “The 23rd of June is the day after my birthday. I was upset because nobody had remembered my birthday, so he was trying to make it up to me. Lee’s mistake is to put stuff down... He writes too much banter, and a lot of rubbish, and that’s his mistake.”

She said there was “no impropriety” in the money paid to the 1990 Trust and the BLF, which had “all been accounted for”.

A further email appears to show Jasper offering to spend the 2006 Labour Party conference in Manchester with Karen. “I am going to Manchester on Friday 22nd September and staying till the following Thursday,” writes Jasper. “I suggest we party in Manchester for the duration. It would be great to spend these days with you. Let me know as I assume hotels will be at a premium and I will need to book early. Please stay the whole duration as there is lots to talk about.”

City Hall has refused to say whether Jasper’s £200-a-night hotel room in Manchester was paid for by London taxpayers.

Karen denied that she had shared it with him.