An Indian immigrant doctor has been struck off for 12 months in New South Wales after a tribunal found his conduct towards three female nurses at a Sydney hospital amounted to sexual harassment.
Muruga Balaji Kandasamy Mohan graduated from Madurai Medical College in India in 1995 before first registering as a doctor in NSW in 2006, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard last week.
The tribunal in August 2024 found Mohan guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct after complaints from three nurses who worked on night shifts with him at Strathfield Private Hospital, where he was employed as an ICU medical officer until 2022.
He then continued working at a general practice in Sydney until at least a month before the June 2 hearing where he had his registration cancelled for a year and was ordered to pay costs.
The tribunal established that Mohan behaved inappropriately towards the first complainant (Person A) between April and July 2022 by, amongst other similar actions, pulling her into a small medication room, blocking the entrance, pulling her mask down, touching her lip with his thumb and telling her she looked beautiful.
At other times he invaded her personal space, asked her if she had a boyfriend, asked where she lived and if he could see a photo of her house, and repeatedly pulled out her hair tie, told her she looked beautiful, put his hand on her waist and dragged her into a dark and empty room, and massaged her shoulders.
Person A said the incident in which he pulled her into the darkened room “left her shaking and scared”, and despite asking to be put on different shifts from Mohan found herself working alongside him again, leaving her feeling “quite traumatised”, the tribunal heard.
The second complainant (Person B), alleged that over a three to four month period in 2021 Mohan told her she was “beautiful” and “sexy”, touched her hair, massaged her shoulders, and asked her to show him “sexy pictures” on at least five occasions when no one else was around. The tribunal heard that Person B warned Mohan she would report him and told him his conduct was unprofessional.
The tribunal heard that the third complainant (Person C) alleged Mohan behaved inappropriately towards her between 2008 and 2019 by making sexual remarks, commenting on the size of her bottom, slapping her bottom when she walked past, and asking to see photos on her phone when they were alone.
Mohan denied every complaint, but the tribunal found they were established, and he later said he had “accepted the outcome”.
“Whilst I have not changed my evidence about past events, I accept my admitted behaviour with Persons A, B and C, caused them distress and was unacceptable and I am now very conscious of my behaviour and the impact on others,” he said in a statement.
The tribunal found that Mohan’s conduct was an “abuse of power” and noted that he had attempted to discredit the complainants in his evidence by “attributing motives to lie and fabricate the complaints against him”.
“There can be no denying the gravity of [Mohan]’s conduct in sexually harassing his female colleagues. The conduct occurred over a period of years and involved three female colleagues. It occurred during night shifts and when there were few people around and only two nurses rostered on,” the tribunal stated.
“[Mohan]’s conduct escalated from inappropriate comments on the complainants’ appearance to touching and, in relation to Person A, laying hands on her and pulling her into an empty darkened room and touching her lips.
“There was nothing jovial about his comments nor could the complaints reflect a misinterpretation of his meaning. The complained of conduct was situational, that is [Mohan] took advantage of the relatively isolated circumstances of night shift in a hospital ward. His conduct was deliberate.”
The tribunal found that a cancellation of Mohan’s registration for 12 months was necessary to ensure that he understood the gravity of his conduct, and to “denounce the conduct and reassure both the public and other professionals that sexual harassment of colleagues is not to be tolerated within the medical profession”.
Mohan said he had suffered personal and financial difficulties due to the tribunal’s misconduct determination, and had given up his partnerships in various practices.
Header image: Left, right, Muruga Balaji Kandasamy Mohan (Healthengine).
