The BBC has dropped a prominent British psychiatrist of Indian origin amidst allegations that his articles in journals had been plagiarised from a work of an American academic.
Raj Persaud, who is considered Britain's best-known psychiatrist, appears regularly in television chat shows, presents radio programmes and writes columns in the press.
However, the allegations have placed him under a media cloud.
The BBC has confirmed that he will no longer present the new series of Radio 4's mental health programme "All in the Mind". He presented the programme for six years.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Dr Raj Persaud offered to stand down until this matter is resolved. The forthcoming series will be presented by a series of
guest presenters, including Claire Hammond and Tanya Byron."
Persaud's two controversial articles have been retracted by different publications following the allegations.
He allegedly reprinted, word for word, a work by American academic Thomas Blass, a professor at the University of Maryland.
In December, the British Medical Journal retracted a review by Persaud of a biography of the social psychologist Stanley Milgram written by Blass, citing "unattributed use of text from other published sources".
In September last year, the journal Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry retracted an article by Persaud, which it had published in February. Blass claimed that over 50 per cent of the piece was his work.
At the time, Persaud had told the Guardian it was the result of "a cutting and pasting error".
An investigation into the allegations was launched in December by a review panel from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, where he is a consultant. It has yet to deliver its conclusions.
{{/usCountry}}An investigation into the allegations was launched in December by a review panel from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, where he is a consultant. It has yet to deliver its conclusions.
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