Doctor who sexually assaulted an off-duty police officer is suspended

Doctor who sexually assaulted an off-duty police officer on the London Underground is suspended for six months

• Yashvir Maharaj followed and repeatedly touched off-duty police officer on Tube
• He was fined after conviction for sexual assault at Inner London Crown Court
• Doctor hauled before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing last week
• Majaraj was suspended from practising as a doctor for six months by panel

A doctor who sexually assaulted an off-duty police officer on the London Underground has been suspended for six months after ‘bringing the profession into disrepute’.

Yashvir Maharaj was travelling on the Tube when he followed and repeatedly tried to touch another passenger.

The Edinburgh-based doctor initially touched the officer on his right bum cheek, before following the man as he moved away.

At one point, Maharaj swayed towards the crotch of the officer and was an inch away from touching his ‘private parts’.

The victim then took Maharaj off the train and explained he was a serving police officer, before taking his details.

An investigation was subsequently launched by British Transport Police and Maharaj was charged over the incident in July 2019.

Having denied all wrongdoing, he was convicted of sexual assault of a male over 16 without penetration following a trial at Inner London Crown Court.

The doctor was fined £300, ordered to pay £200 in compensation to the police officer and a £32 victim surcharge.

And he was hauled before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) over the incident last week.

A British Transport Police officer checks that passengers are wearing face coverings on a Picadilly Line train on November 30 last year

A British Transport Police sign on the back of an officer’s high visibility jacket while on duty in central London (stock picture)

A panel heard that Maharaj had qualified from the University of Kathmandu in Nepal back in 2000 before working as a research physician supervising drug trials in Edinburgh from October 2013.

His legal team accepted his fitness to practice as a medic was ‘impaired’ because of his sexual assault conviction, but argued that he is a ‘competent’ doctor and there was no issues of patient safety.

They added that the sexual assault was ‘minor’ and there is ‘no risk’ of repetition because Maharaj had banned himself from travelling on public transport.

Aaminah Khan, chair of the MPTS panel, said Maharaj’s actions had brought the profession into ‘disrepute’.

He said: ‘While Dr Maharaj’s offence occurred outside of the context of a clinical environment and no patients were affected, sexual assault against any member of the public is a serious breach of the standards expected of a doctor and inevitably brings the medical profession into disrepute and undermines public trust in the profession.

‘It is clear that Dr Maharaj’s conviction brings the profession into disrepute and that his actions breached a fundamental tenet of the medical profession.

‘The tribunal considered that Dr Maharaj had underestimated individual patient concerns and it is considered that a reasonable and well-informed member of the public would expect a finding of impairment to be made in this case, both to mark the seriousness of the misconduct, and to uphold proper standards across the medical profession.’

The panel noted that there were ‘no issues in respect of patient safety’, but said a suspension order was necessary given the ‘seriousness of the conviction’.

Maharaj was suspended from practising for six months.  

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