LONDON: A 49-year-old Indian-origin maths lecturer at Oxford University's top-ranked St John's College was arrested in connection with the death of Steve Rawlings, an internationally renowned Oxford astrophysicist. Devinder Sivia, from whose Oxfordshire home Rawlings' body was found, was released on bail on Friday but cops said the maths teacher, from a family that migrated from Moga in Punjab a generation ago, remained the only suspect. Sivia, whose subject is mathematics for natural sciences, was handcuffed and taken by cops on Wednesday night on suspicion of being involved in the murder of 50-year-old Rawlings, with whom he co-authored a book - Foundations of Science Mathematics - in 1999. Neighbours and other academics who knew the two said they were the best of friends for over 30 years and were mild mannered scholars, dedicated to their subjects. Granted a phone call after his arrest, Sivia called his father who lives in the county of Kent, but was unwilling to comment on the matter. Sivia, who obtained a doctorate at Cambridge before teaching at Oxford, stayed alone and was unmarried. His CV cited his research interests as application of Bayesian probability theory to all sorts of data analysis, and said he had published a tutorial book on the subject. Steve Rawlings, whose body was found at the home of his friend and maths lecturer Devinder Sivia, was a professor at St Peter's College. Rawlings, a married man, obtained his PhD from Cambridge and an MA DPhil from Oxford and listed modern art, travel, music, travel and visiting his local pub as interests. Harbinder Singh, who was at Cambridge with Sivia, described him as "brilliant and reclusive". For him to be involved in a murder was, according to Singh, "uncharacteristic". He quoted Sivia's neighbours as saying he was a "quiet, gentle soul". "He (Sivia) is still a suspect pending further inquiries. But he has been granted police bail until April 18." However, the same source was reported in British media as saying the death may be "a matter for a coroner's inquest rather than a criminal court," a spokesman for Thames Valley police, the regional constabulary in-charge of the Oxford area.. A post-mortem proved inconclusive about the cause of death and further tests were scheduled, police said. Detective superintendent Rob Mason of the Thames Valley's major crime unit, said, "This is a tragic incident and our investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of death."
Clean chit from Rawling's sister
While there was no authoritative version of circumstances of the death, one report in British dailies said the two had an altercation over an academic issue that got physical. One report claimed Rawlings died of a heart attack soon after and efforts by a neighbour to revive him with CPR failed and by the time an ambulance arrived he was dead. Rawlings' family was surprised that Sivia was being viewed as a suspect and said they did not believe that he could have murdered his friend and blamed his death on "a tragic accident".
Linda Davey, 64, Rawlings' older sister, was quoted in a daily's site as saying Sivia was not the type of man to get into an argument over anythin