Former consultant psychiatrist Dr Gurdeep Singh was charged today with allegedly insulting the modesty of a former patient and rape victim

Former private hospital psychiatrist charged over rape victim’s sexual harassment complaint

Friday, 18 Oct 2019 12:55 PM MYT

BY IDA LIM

Lawyer Francis Pereira was present to hold a watching brief for the patient. ― Picture by Miera Zulyana

PETALING JAYA, Oct 18 — Former consultant psychiatrist Dr Gurdeep Singh was charged today with allegedly insulting the modesty of a former patient and rape victim using sexually-charged words.

Dr Gurdeep, 41, pleaded not guilty when the charge under Section 509 of the Penal Code was read out to him at the Magistrate's Court here.

He is accused of uttering the offensive words to a former female patient at Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara at around 4.30pm on February 12, 2019.

According to the charge that was read out, the words include: “Were you a virgin, how did it feel, was his penis big, did it hurt Sex is supposed to be great, sex is good, sex feels and everyone should have a lot of sex.”

Section 509 of the Penal Code covers the offence of insult of a person's modesty, which is punishable by a jail term of up to five years or fine or both.

Magistrate Mohamad Ikhwan Mohd Nasir fixed bail at RM5,000 with the additional condition that Dr Gurdeep not disturb the sexual harassment victim and the victim's family until the end of the case.

The prosecution had sought for bail to be set at RM7,000 with the condition for the victim and victim's family to not be disturbed by the accused until the case ends.

Dr Gurdeep's lawyer, Datuk Suraj Singh, sought for a lower bail by saying his client was now unemployed.

Lawyer Dinesh Ramachandran also represented Dr Gurdeep.

Lawyer Francis Pereira was present to hold a watching brief for the patient. The name of the patient has been withheld at the lawyer's request.

The sexual harassment victim was also a victim of rape.

The case will come up for further mention on December 5.

On July 17, the Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara said it had acted immediately by launching a domestic inquiry following an online complaint the same month about the alleged sexual harassment.

The hospital had suspended the consultant psychiatrist on July 6 pending the internal inquiry, before terminating his services on July 15 after the inquiry was completed.

The hospital had then said it had reported the case to the police and the Malaysian Medical Council.