Indian jailed for groping pregnant woman not to be deported

London, Feb 11 (IANS) A 36-year-old man of Indian origin who was jailed for 12 months for groping a pregnant patient at a British hospital where he worked will not be deported because of his "right to family life".

Milind Sanade pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the 21-year-old pregnant woman at a hospital in Harlow, Essex, in February 2010.

He reportedly groped the woman while examining her for signs of breast cancer, the Daily Mail said.

To hide his crime, Sanade made entries in the victim's medical file so that if she complained she would be viewed as emotionally unstable.

He was jailed for a year, ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years, banned from working in care homes and struck off the nursing register.

Under British laws, foreign criminals jailed for a year or more must be deported unless there are exceptional circumstances where the right to family life would be violated.

Sanade had been earlier cautioned for assaulting an 87-year-old man when he worked in a care home.

He had come to Britain in July 2003. He married in Bangalore in 2005 and was granted indefinite leave in July 2009 to remain in Britain.

Sanade was released from prison six months into his sentence and should have been deported.

But he appealed on the grounds of an Article in the European Convention on Human Rights, that after fathering two children in Britain, he had the right to family life.

But neighbours at his house in Chelmsford, Essex, said his wife had returned to India.

"Sanade is always coming and going, and we never really see much of him. I have heard that his wife has left him and taken the kids to India with her," one neighbour said.

Another neighbour suggested his wife might not have left him permanently but could just be on an "extended holiday", the daily said.

Sanade said his wife and children were abroad but insisted they were planning to return to Britain soon. "They are in India. They are coming back," he said.