KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — A psychiatrist, who had previously been charged over allegedly sexually harassing his patient has been charged again today at the Magistrate’s Court in Petaling Jaya.

Lawyer Francis Pereira ,who held a watching brief for the victim told the Malay Mail that the suspect Dr Gurdeep Singh had also changed lawyers from Datuk Suraj Singh to Datuk Haaziq Pillay.

“He was recharged today and of course he has a new lawyer on record. He is being represented by Datuk Haaziq Pillay and Datuk Siraj is not acting for the doctor anymore. His bail is also retained at RM5,000 with the same bailor,” said Pereira.

However, Dr Gurdeep also has plans on filing a suit against a media company for “unfair reporting” and that their actions were sub judice.

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Although the company was not named, Haaziq said his client was upset over some of the words used to describe him including the term “perverted psychiatrist”.

The next hearing will be on March 4 where the prosecution will hand over documents to the defence.

Dr Gurdeep was accused of uttering sexually offensive words to a former female patient who was a rape victim at Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara at around 4.30pm on February 12, 2019.

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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.

On July 17 last year, 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.