Indian-origin surgeon faces re-trial in Australia

Prosecutors have filed in an Australian court for a fresh trial of a former Indian origin surgeon in a hospital in that country for causing grievous bodily harm to a patient.

Prosecutors in the Australian state of Queensland filed for the trial of Jayant Patel before the chief judge of the Brisband district court Tuesday, local media reported.

Patel, who worked in the Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a 65-year-old patient, Ian Rodney Vowles, by unnecessarily removing his colon in 2004.

The trial is set to be held late September this year after the court last month proposed that the trial be listed in the week commencing Sep 23.

The Jamnagar, Gujarat, born Patel had a controversial tenure in the hospital from 2003 to early 2005, during which over 80 deaths were linked to him and 30 patients died in his care.

After that, he left for Portland, Oregon, in the US.

He was, however, extradited to Australia in 2008 to face trial.