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A couple of months ago, Bimal K Roy was conferred a Padma Shri for his contributions in education, especially in cryptology — a science that ensures information security.
On Wednesday, the ministry for statistics and programme implementation, headed by former army chief of staff General VK Singh, sacked Roy with immediate effect from the position of Director, Indian Statistical Institute. He was due to complete his term next month.
Roy was replaced by S Bandyopadhyay, who was selected as director-designate on Monday. As per a June 8 decision of the ministry, Bandyopadhyay was scheduled to take over the directorship from August 1.
Roy was not available for comment. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior professor described the development as “unprecedented in the history of the Indian Statistical Institute”.
The order The June 10 order, issued by the deputy director general of the Central Statistics Office (coordination and publication division), said that over and above appointing the director designate of ISI, the June 8 meeting also took note of the “indiscipline on the part of B Roy” and directed that “disciplinary action may be taken against him (Roy).
The incidence of indiscipline was recorded in the note on “appointment of the new director of the ISI, annexed with the letter received on June 4 from the chairman (Arun Shourie), council of the ISI,” the order said.
“Indiscipline is evident on the part of … Roy from the facts recorded in the … note. A number of general and specific matters of financial and administrative irregularities which show the direct or supervisory responsibilities…on the part of Prof B Roy are available in the ministry in the various files on different subjects,” the order said.
“It is difficult to continue confidence in Prof B Roy as Director, ISI, during the interregnum and for the good of the institute…Roy will stand divested of all administrative, financial and other powers and duties of director ISI with effect from the afternoon of 10th June, 2015,” the order added.
Conflict zone According to sources, Roy found himself in a conflict zone with a section of faculty members for stepping up financing of cryptology research. Unconfirmed sources say he was also expecting an extension in his directorship.
However, the institute director’s refused to comment on the removal and possible reasons behind it. Efforts to seek comments from director-designate Bandyopadhyay also remained unsuccessful.
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