-The Times of India The molecular biologist who was arrested and put behind bars for 10 days for his role in the Nonadanga protests said on Wednesday he was committed to the slum-dwellers' cause. Partho Sarothi Ray insisted at a press conference within hours of walking out of jail that he had been framed, and described the situation in Bengal as a "dark state of democracy". "I was not on the spot...

-The Hindustan Times Democracy is in peril in West Bengal, Partha Sarothi Ray alleged within hours of walking free from jail on Wednesday, after a number of intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his release. Ray was arrested on April 8 for participating in a sit-in demonstration protesting the Eviction of about 200 families from Nonadanga by the Mamata Banerjee administration. He was granted bail on Wednesday, after...

The fear that “anyone can be arrested any day” brought some 2,000 teachers from campuses across Calcutta out on the road on Wednesday to protest the arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, the Jadavpur University professor who had been put behind bars for forwarding an Internet joke lampooning chief minister Mamata Banerjee. They walked from the central library of Jadavpur University to Triangular Park on Rashbehari Avenue. The rally, organised by the...

Social activists and students of Jadavpur University took out separate processions here on Tuesday in protest against the police action last week against Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of the university, for circulating e-mails containing graphics of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress leaders. Dr. Mahapatra, who was arrested in connection with the incident and subsequently released on bail, was present in both the processions. Students carried placards...

The high-handedness of the Trinamool government in West Bengal has now raised international concern. This time it's the arrest of Partho Sarothi Ray, a molecular biologist of international repute. National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy and renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky and more than four dozen other prominent scientists and public figures from across India and other countries have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get the academician released after...