Scientist and crusader rolled into one

Partho Sarothi Ray,who arrest has created a storm,balances microbiology career with mass movements

To those close to him,Partho Sarothi Ray,36,represents both a brilliant microbiologist and an aggressive crusader against what he saw as oppression. They say his recent arrest,therefore,amounted to tampering with a national asset.

Ray,an assistant professor with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata,was arrested on April 8 on charges of obstructing policemen on duty at an eviction drive in east Kolkata. He won a bail order on Wednesday.

Because of the two sides to his character,the arrest raised a storm in the international scientific community and from his fans across the country. Supporters went online with blogs and posts on social networking sites protesting the arrest.

A resident of Raj Danga School Road,Ray has participated in several movements against alleged oppression and friends say this was irrespective of which political party was involved. Police sources,on the other hand,alleged he had links with Maoist groups.

He had been actively supporting various movements since 1991 and has been to places like Lalganj,Assam and Orissa,whenever there was a need to support the oppressed, said a friend. Ray was in Orissa during the Posco movement,backing the protesters being displaced,and also took part in the anti-dam movement by Assams Krishok Mukti Samgram Samity.

Academically,he has a Ph D from the department of microbiology and cell biology at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore,and has been a post-doctoral fellow in the department of cell biology at the Lerner Research Institute,Cleveland Clinic,Ohio.

Some of the articles he has written for a web magazine have been described as pathbreaking. He has been honoured by several universities across the globe for his work. The list includes the Sreenivasaya Medal,2004-05,for the best Ph D thesis from IIScs department of microbiology and cell biology; the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance intermediate fellowship,2010; the tile of Associate,Indian Academy of Sciences,2010; and the Fellowship Lecture Award at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology,2009,where the subject was Evolution: The molecular landscape.

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He is the Eastern India head of a research programme on cancer and was doing very well in the field, said a friend. These political indictments were absolutely uncalled for. He was not even present when the alleged incident took place. We have documents to prove that he was somewhere else,attending a meeting,on April 4.

Partho is a research scholar and has been implicated falsely along with the others, said his lawyer,speaking before a court granted the microbiologist bail.

He added that his client is neither leftist nor rightist. Just like any ordinary man with a conscience will do,he protested against anything that he thought was wrong.