DU hounded out whistle-blower in Pental case, HC restored his job
29 Nov 2014 4:23 AM IST
There is more to the arrest and release of former Delhi University vice-chancellor Deepak Pental than just a mere case of plagiarism. The documents in possession of Millennium Post show that the whistle-blower in the case, Professor P Pardha Saradhi, who also teaches in Delhi University, was harassed, falsely implicated and suspended, after he filed a complaint in May 2004 about theft of research data.
It all started in 2000, when Paradhi came to know that his former PhD student KVS Prasad had published a paper without giving credit to other researchers of his team, who contributed significantly for developing coda-Indian mustard transgenic. Paradhi, considering the fact that his complaint would be addressed, wrote a mail to Deepak Pental, who was then Director of varsity’s South Campus and had hired Prasad as a Post-Doctoral fellow the same year.
In his email reply to Millennium Post, Paradhi said, ‘Prasad had simply taken away data of the research work carried out by him along with others as a part of my research team and projected it out as the work carried in his Young Scientist project. Prasad projected that the entire work was carried at South Campus in Genetics Department (in Prof Deepak Pental’s lab). Prasad also acknowledged another member of Pental’s research team.’
Incidentally, Pental took the charge of DU V-C in 2005.
Paradhi further alleged that Pental instead of taking action on his complaint started harassing him in different ways either directly or indirectly through Prof CR Babu (who was then Pro-VC). ‘Worse than this, Pental even went on to the extent of indirectly harassing PhD students working with me,’ alleged Saradhi.
Blowing the lid off, the professor of environmental studies said, ‘Pental, along with CR Babu, encouraged students to lodge false complaints against him with the help of some of the teachers, who were close to them.’ The worse was yet to come as, according to Saradhi, in 2008 on the pursuance of Pental and his aides one MSc first year student lodged a complaint against him. A committee was constituted consisting of a professor of English, Hindi and theoretical Physics to investigate into the matter, said Saradhi, adding that he as neither given nor shown the copies of complaint.
Paradhi, was suspended on 15 April, 2008, accused Pental of suspending him without giving either student’s complaint or copy of interim report submitted by the enquiry committee.
His suspension was revoked and he was reinstated after he sought relief from the High Court, which saw no merit in the charges against him.
It all started in 2000, when Paradhi came to know that his former PhD student KVS Prasad had published a paper without giving credit to other researchers of his team, who contributed significantly for developing coda-Indian mustard transgenic. Paradhi, considering the fact that his complaint would be addressed, wrote a mail to Deepak Pental, who was then Director of varsity’s South Campus and had hired Prasad as a Post-Doctoral fellow the same year.
In his email reply to Millennium Post, Paradhi said, ‘Prasad had simply taken away data of the research work carried out by him along with others as a part of my research team and projected it out as the work carried in his Young Scientist project. Prasad projected that the entire work was carried at South Campus in Genetics Department (in Prof Deepak Pental’s lab). Prasad also acknowledged another member of Pental’s research team.’
Incidentally, Pental took the charge of DU V-C in 2005.
Paradhi further alleged that Pental instead of taking action on his complaint started harassing him in different ways either directly or indirectly through Prof CR Babu (who was then Pro-VC). ‘Worse than this, Pental even went on to the extent of indirectly harassing PhD students working with me,’ alleged Saradhi.
Blowing the lid off, the professor of environmental studies said, ‘Pental, along with CR Babu, encouraged students to lodge false complaints against him with the help of some of the teachers, who were close to them.’ The worse was yet to come as, according to Saradhi, in 2008 on the pursuance of Pental and his aides one MSc first year student lodged a complaint against him. A committee was constituted consisting of a professor of English, Hindi and theoretical Physics to investigate into the matter, said Saradhi, adding that he as neither given nor shown the copies of complaint.
Paradhi, was suspended on 15 April, 2008, accused Pental of suspending him without giving either student’s complaint or copy of interim report submitted by the enquiry committee.
His suspension was revoked and he was reinstated after he sought relief from the High Court, which saw no merit in the charges against him.
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