Steve Rawlings’ wife gives clean chit to Indian-origin colleague Sivia

London, Jan 18,2012: The widow of the Oxford professor, who died at his Indian-origin Sikh colleague’s home, has told him she does not blame him for the tragedy. Dr Devinder Sivia’s family has said that deceased professor Steve Rawlings’ wife Linda had called him on the night of the death because she was worried about her husband’s ‘emotional state’ Sivia, subsequently, had dinner with Professor Rawlings at a pub before taking his friend to his home. Sivia said that Professor Rawlings was ‘very emotional’ and added that the latter attacked him, and collapsed with a suspected heart attack, while he was restraining him at his bungalow in Southmoor, near Abingdon. “My brother defended himself and it looks like while restraining him he had a heart attack. Linda has called my brother and says she doesn’t blame him, as she was the one who asked him to go to the pub and talk to Steven. She gave him instructions to talk to Steven at the pub because he was in an emotional state,” The Daily Mail quoted Sivia’s brother Gurdip, as saying.
It has also emerged that Rawlings had to quit the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project aimed at building the world’s largest radio telescope, after suffering with mental health problems since summer last year.
“He became withdrawn and dropped out of both his academic work and the SKA. I was told he suffered some mental problems but I don’t know what caused them,” Professor Phil Diamond, who had worked with Professor Rawlings on the SKA scheme, said. Police had earlier arrested Sivia on suspicion of murder but later released him on police bail, after his friend Rawlings was found dead at his bungalow.