Pharmacist Pradyuman Gadaria, registration number 2051582, has received a twelve-month suspension after he was found to have hugged junior colleagues “without [their] permission”, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) revealed.
He also messaged them on social media platform Instagram, “complimenting” their physical appearance in some cases, it said.
In a remote hearing between May 29 to June 3 and August 4-8, the committee heard that he repeatedly hugged “five females who were colleagues of his” between 2015 and 2021 who then complained about the behaviour.
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According to the hearing documents, four of the complainants also alleged that Gadaria contacted them “via social media”, on Instagram, “which included comments on their physical appearance and [the] use of wink emojis”.
The regulator accepted that he had a “previous good character” and showed “expressions of remorse” and “some reflections”.
But it stressed that “the conduct was towards multiple colleagues, both in person and over social media on multiple occasions” who were all “professionally junior, younger and…subject to supervision” from him.
“Unsolicited physical contact”
While Gadaria was working as a pharmacist at Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, five female employees – colleagues C, D, E, F and J – complained about “unsolicited physical contact happening at work while on shift, including intense hugging, rubbing of backs and touching of bra straps”, the document said.
The committee heard that colleague E believed “the hugs were longer than she thought appropriate for work” and were “particularly inappropriate” as they were during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that she “did not consider them to have any sexual motivation”.
His behaviour was “odd and unnecessary” and an “unwanted distraction”, she said, but noted that at the time “she did not feel the need to raise any concerns about it”.
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Colleague D similarly felt that Gadaria’s hugs would “last too long and made her uncomfortable” but that they were “not sexually motivated” and she accepted that “she had never told him that she did not want to be hugged”, the document said.
“She accepted that she had not reported [his] conduct as she did not think it was bad enough to report”, that she never “blocked” or “deleted” him on Instagram and that “the messages on social media did not spur her to report” him, the committee heard.
According to colleague F, Gadaria would “hug her from behind while she was sitting on a chair” and “touch the top of her shoulders”, making her feel “uncomfortable because of the environment they were in or because [it was] unexpected”, the document said.
“Intimate touching”
Colleagues J and C also described feeling “uncomfortable”, with the former saying that he would touch her bra “in the middle of the strap where the clips were” over her clothing, always in “the same part...on more than one occasion”, it added.
He was “engaging in intimate touching and abusing his position of power”, colleague J said, adding that he sent her a “wink emoji” in one message that was “inappropriate as [Gadaria] was her clinical supervisor”, it said.
She felt his “conduct was sexually motivated” but accepted that “she had been influenced by others’ complaints” and that was why she came forward, the committee heard.
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These alleged actions began in 2015, but concerns were not raised until December 2020 via the “freedom to speak up guardian” by “female members of staff requesting that [Gadaria] stop initiating physical contact with them”, the document said.
Two further reports were then made about his “touching/hugging staff members in unsolicited contexts in January 2022”, leading to an internal investigation and his subsequent dismissal in November of that year, it added.
Police asked the council to “pause” its investigation in December 2022 “while the matter was reviewed by the rape and serious sexual offending unit” but confirmed in September 2023 that “the criminal investigation was closed and that [Gadaria] would not be charged with any criminal offences”, the committee heard.
“Abuse of power”
The regulator accepted that Gadaria showed “expressions of remorse” and that he had “undertaken a continued professional development (CPD) course” and therapy.
And it acknowledged the “large amount of testimonial evidence given in favour of [him]”.
But the GPhC stressed that his conduct included both “in work...and out-of-work interactions” and that he showed “limited insight”.
It added that he had “been warned previously about his touching/hugging behaviour and had continued regardless”, noting that all complainants the committee heard from were “professionally junior”, which was “an abuse of power” by Gadaria.
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The council stressed that “witnesses expressed a fear of making the workplace awkward and described their discomfort given their professional relationship of supervisor-supervisee”, adding that “there is no doubt that emotional harm has been suffered by some of the colleagues”.
Gadaria’s witness statement “is very limited as to what impact, if any, he perceives his actions may have had” and his “failure to give evidence orally” at the hearing “leaves the committee with a lack of understanding about what he has taken away from these [CPD] courses”, it added.
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The GPhC determined that “on balance, [his] actions, while serious, did not fall into the category of the most serious conduct”, finding that “removal would be disproportionate”.
It concluded that “a suspension of 12 months would be appropriate and proportionate” for the need to “maintain professional standards and public confidence in the profession”.
Read the determination in full here.
