Chennai sleaze doc gets life

Dr RL Prakash, who secretly filmed patients in the nude and posted their pictures on the Internet, was sentenced to life. G.C. Shekhar reports.

Dr RL Prakash, an orthopaedician, who secretly filmed patients in the nude and posted their pictures on the Internet, was sentenced to life by a fast track court on Thursday.

“Since he has played with the modesty of women, his crime cannot be taken lightly and he deserves life imprisonment,” said Judge Radha in her judgment.

Prakash was found guilty under various provisions of the IPC, the anti-trafficing Act and the indecent representation of women Act. Three of his associates got up to seven years rigorous imprisonment.

He was arrested in 2002 for running a pornographic website with his US-based brother. He also got his ward boys to indulge in sexual activities with call girls and posted them on the site.

A police complaint against Prakash was lodged by a man called Ganesh, a school dropout lured to the doctor's farmhouse outside Chennai and made to participate in sexual activities. Based on Ganesh's complaint, police discovered hidden cameras in the farmhouse and reels video footage of similar sexual acts.

The police said, in some cases, the doctor had also blackmailed women patients with the secretly-taken photographs and forced them to participate in sexual acts for the pornographic videos.