Kumaon prof says she blew plagiarism whistle on V-C, so he suspended her

Prof Kavita Pandey, head of the Physics department, claims that her ‘‘harassment’’ started ever since she posted information about the ‘‘plagiarism’’ on the department’s notice board.

Chunks of a paper—on black holes—published in the October 1996 issue of Physical Review D by Stanford physics professor Renata Kallosh were reportedly lifted by Suresh C Joshi and Rajput and published in the March 2002 edition of Europhysics Letters.

‘‘Between June 24 and September 4, I was given 15 show cause notices on fabricated and frivolous charges ranging from instigating students, employees and financial irregularities,’’ Pandey told The Indian Express. ‘‘My suspension is illegal since no executive committee meeting was called nor was a disciplinary committee formed as required under the university statues. Using his emergency powers, the vice-chancellor has tried to take his revenge by suspending me.’’

University authorities maintain that Pandey’s suspension had nothing to do with her expose.

‘‘She has been suspended for other charges, including financial irregularities,’’ Rajkumar, the University Registrar, said. ‘‘Since we didn’t have enough time, emergency powers given to the Vice-chancellor were revoked.’’

Rajput also denied that Pandey has been victimised. ‘‘Much before the case of plagiarism came up, she resigned as Dean Student Welfare after facing charges of financial irregularities,’’ he said.

The allegations against her range from denying an appointment to a scheduled caste matron of a hostel to refusing students facilities of the physics department in the evening. ‘‘There was an inquiry into a complaint from students. The teachers’ association also wrote against her,’’ Rajput added.

Pandey countered that these allegations were ‘‘humbug’’. ‘‘I resigned from the post of DSW on February 19, 2002 and the last meeting of the executive committee of the university was held on April 6, 2002 but there was no 9ention about any charge against me by then,’’ she said.

‘‘From being one of the most brilliant teachers of the university, I become an accused overnight after exposing the academic fraud of the vice-chancellor.’’