Cleared of groping ... thanks to a jumper
GP accuser’s roll-neck ‘made assault improbable’
A DOCTOR accused of slipping his hand down a woman’s top on a flight has been cleared after it emerged that she was wearing a thick roll-neck jumper at the time.
Rajkumar Mazumder, 70, who had an unblemished career until the incident, has spent the past five years fighting the accusations.
The GP was finally vindicated after a tribunal found that the inconsistencies in the woman’s account were so extensive they undermined her credibility.
The woman passenger, a multiple sclerosis sufferer in her 30s, claimed the incident happened during a packed 13-hour flight from North Carolina to Gatwick on September 30, 2012.
She was sat in the row in front of Dr Mazumder and his wife Dawn, who had been visiting a grandchild. She alleged that while she was sitting down and he was stood in the aisle he put his hand down her bra and grabbed her left breast while rubbing himself against her waist. She said the doctor had appeared ‘tipsy’.
But, at a disciplinary hearing, she admitted that at the time she was wearing a thick woolly sweater with a roll-down collar and had a vest top underneath that came up to the base of her throat.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal panel concluded that to have put a hand down her clothing would have been a ‘very difficult manoeuvre’. It was improbable that Dr Mazumder would have been able to do this while rubbing himself against her waist – and it would have been likely to attract attention.
The panel also concluded that it was likely her arm rest would have prevented him rubbing himself against her. The hearing in Manchester was told that the woman complained to police in November 2012. Dr Mazumder, from Southgate, North London, was questioned but no criminal charges were brought.
In December 2015, the woman made further claims to the General Medical Council. The panel said it was ‘of great significance’ that the allegation of groping inside her clothing was made three years later.
The GP, who now lives in Spain, told the tribunal the woman had been in discomfort and had agreed to let him examine her. He admitted sharing a bottle of red wine with his wife before the flight but denied being drunk. Dr Mazumder denied misconduct and was cleared on Wednesday.
Panel chairman Dr Vishal Agrawal said: ‘The tribunal has considered whether it is more likely than not that a doctor of good character would have committed a sexual assault on a crowded plane, with his wife sitting in the row behind.
‘To do so would have been reckless and very risky. The tribunal considers such behaviour would have been unlikely.’
He added: ‘The numerous inconsistencies in Miss A’s evidence, and in particular the account of the assault itself, are so extensive as to undermine the overall credibility and reliability of her evidence.’