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A pathologist formerly working in Bluffton will spend the next year on home detention after admitting to charges he sexually battered a housekeeper and held her against her will.
Dr. Ashwani Duggal was accused of groping a woman, offering her money for sex and pinning her to his bed after she came to his home in February. The 50-year-old initially told The Journal Gazette those accusations were false and that he would fight the charges.
That fight ended Tuesday as Duggal pleaded guilty in Allen Superior Court to felony counts of sexual battery and criminal confinement as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
As part of the deal, he received a suspended 1 1/2 -year prison sentence but is to serve the first year of that sentence on home detention, according to Allen County prosecutors.
Duggal had the woman, Noelia Sanchez, come to his Aboite home in the 10100 block of Mesa Glen Court on Feb. 28. She came to clean, according to court documents, but he made sexual advances toward her by touching her arm and breast. After being rebuffed, he offered her $300 to sleep with him, the documents said.
She refused, which caused Duggal to push her into his bedroom and pin her to his bed, according to the documents. Sanchez was able to push him off and run out the door, even while he grabbed her hair, according to a police report.
The Journal Gazette does not typically identify victims of sex crimes but is naming Sanchez because she and her husband filed a lawsuit against Duggal in July in Allen Superior Court.
Initially, Duggal told The Journal Gazette the woman’s accusations were the result of a language barrier as she only spoke Spanish. He resigned from his position as a pathologist with Caylor-Nickel Clinic in Bluffton in early July.
