A doctor has been arrested and accused of fondling two teenage patients in Mississippi years after investigators for the state’s licensing board received a report from another young woman alleging he preyed on her in a medical examination in Florida.
Dr. Mehul Dixit, a pediatric nephrologist (a children’s kidney and urinary tract specialist), was charged last week with two counts of sexual battery, and his medical license was suspended, according to police and a report issued by the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. He was not charged in the alleged Florida incident.
Dixit, who is 59 and went to medical school in India, also appears to have practiced medicine in Arizona and New York City, available records show.
At Friday’s court hearing, a judge set Dixit’s bond at $300,000 and barred him from having contact with his accusers, anyone under age 18 or anyone he worked with at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
Dixit is not listed as an inmate at the Hinds County Jail. He lives in the Jackson suburb of Madison with his wife, who is also a physician, records show.
Dixit’s lawyer Cynthia Stewart Dixit did not immediately return a call requesting comment She did not comment about the allegations but told local media that Dixit has agreed to stop practicing medicine, WAPT-TV of Jackson reported.
The licensing board has summoned Dixit for a hearing Thursday, saying evidence indicated that allowing him to continue practicing “would constitute an immediate danger to public health and safety.”
The two Mississippi teens Dixit is accused of sexually abusing said he preyed on them during medical examinations at UMMC. One of the accusers told police she was 13 in 2013 when he allegedly abused her, according to the report. The other said she was 17 when Dixit allegedly assaulted her in February.
In its report Friday, the board noted that in 2016 a Florida woman came forward and told its investigators Dixit abused her during an examination a decade earlier for kidney stones. The circumstances under which the Mississippi teens are alleged to have been assaulted were similar to those the Florida woman described, the report says.
The woman, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault, told a board investigator that Dixit ushered her mother out of the examination room, had her strip naked and then rubbed her breasts and touched her vagina while he was not wearing gloves.
The board report does not say what prompted the Florida woman to come forward. The agency did not return several calls seeking an explanation.
At the time, Dixit was working at UMMC in Jackson. And it appears no steps were taken in 2016 to limit his access to young female patients. The woman did not file a report with police.
“No further action was taken because the events had reportedly occurred in the State of Florida and fell within the primary jurisdiction of that State,” the report states.
The alleged Florida incident resurfaced after “a law enforcement officer contacted Board Investigative Staff” after the most recent allegation and “requested information related to Licensee’s prior interactions with the Board,” the report says.
