Former Bethpage Doctor Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Sexually Abusing Young Girls

A former pediatrician was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for sexually abusing young girls in his Long Island office, according to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.

Rakesh Punn, 58, of Bethpage, pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually abusing young girls in Sept. 2014 and was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance.

Punn will be required to register as a sex offender upon the completion of his prison sentence and must forfeit $2,113,994, which is the amount he used to fund the felonious crimes he committed through his medical practice.

Punn was also sentenced to 30 years in prison in December after he pleaded guilty to separate federal sex abuse charges in April 2015.

He was arrested on July 16, 2010 on charges that he drugged, sexually abused, and videotaped young female patients, one as young as 11, in his office. Punn told the girls that these were medically necessary examinations, according to the DA.

“This sexual predator intentionally targeted the children of Indian immigrants – families that came here to create a better life for their kids,” Singas said in a press release. “The defendant lured these children to his home office, under the guise of false diagnoses so that parents weren’t present, and used drugs to incapacitate the victims. He would then sexually assault and photograph them.”

The DA said that in 2007, Punn took video footage and still photographs of at least five young girls in his office.

Punn obtained video footage in two different ways. First, he would have them disrobe, lie on the exam table, and cover their eyes with gauze and a blindfold. He would then videotape or photograph his sexual contact with them. Investigators say that Punn touched and manipulated the girl’s genitals. In many instances, Punn would give the girls a sedative to render them unconscious.

In other instances, he had the girl stand in his office, while a small digital camera hidden among objects on his desk recorded video. Punn would then have the victim expose her breasts in various positions while being taped. Punn also duped some of the girls into signing a “contract” that said that they were 18 and willing to perform numerous sexual acts on Punn, according to the DAs office.

Punn also wrote prescriptions for chloral-hydrate, a controlled substance, and gave the prescriptions to patients or another person. He would then trick the patients into filling prescriptions and bringing them back to him, under the guise of compounding a special drug or “checking” the prescription. Punn then secretly removed the bottle of chloral-hydrate and kept it for himself. During a search warrant of his office, investigators found three bottles of chloral-hydrate, with prescription labels in patient’s names, the DA’s office said.

A search of his home revealed a large amount of cash and a forged international driver’s license with his photo, but a false name and birth date, officials said.

Back in November 2012, Punn pleaded guilty in a separate case to grand larceny, welfare fraud and a scheme to defraud. On March 8, he was sentenced to one to three years imprisonment on that case and was ordered to pay restitution of $103,000.

Image via NCDA