An Indian-American doctor will be given mental health treatment instead of jail time for driving his car, with his wife and two children, off a cliff in the United States in an alleged attempt to murder them.
Dharmesh Patel, a radiologist in California, drove his car off a cliff last year after allegedly suffering from a psychotic breakdown, psychologists told the court.
Patel believed his children, aged four and seven, were at risk of being sex trafficked which led him to crash the car, an NDTV report quoted psychologists as saying.
The family miraculously survived the crash despite the car, a Tesla, falling over 250 feet. After being rescued, Dharmesh Patel's wife Neha admitted that he drove the car off the cliff intentionally but testified later that she did not want her husband prosecuted.
According to doctors cited in the report, Dharmesh Patel was suffering from schizoaffective disorder and major depressive disorder weeks before the crash.
Dharmesh Patel was hearing footsteps and thought he was being followed in the weeks before the crash, a psychologist said, adding that "it was paranoid and kind of delusional thinking that he acted on at the time to protect his family from a worse fate."
"He was concerned that his children were at risk of being kidnapped, possibly for sexual molestation," the psychologist told the court.
On Thursday, a US court came to the conclusion that Dharmesh Patel was eligible for a 'mental health diversion', that allows an accused with mental illness who has committed a crime to get mental health treatment instead of serving jail time.
As per the law,such a provision can only be considered if the illness played a huge role in the crime.
Superior Court Judge Susan M. Jakubowski deemed Patel eligible for the programme based on the doctors' diagnosis and ordered his release to his parents in California.
Dharmesh Patel will have to be monitored with GPS and report to the court once a week. He is also not allowed to travel outside his country and has been asked to surrender his driving license and passport.
The next hearing in the case will be held on July 1.
