New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS): A court here sent a male nurse of a government hospital to one-year in prison for molesting a woman patient.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs. 1000 on him and directed him to pay Rs. 9,000 as compensation to the victim.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ekta Gauba said that offences against women are on the rise in the city.

"It is a serious public order problem if women are not safe even during medical treatment in a government hospital," the judge said in an order delivered Monday.

The court observed that convict Brij Bihari Rathore, 32, was a male staff nurse in Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in west Delhi's Raghubir Nagar. He behaved indecently with the patient while performing his duty as a male staff nurse.

It noted that after this incident, Rathore started making calls on the woman's mobile phone asking her to meet him.

According to the prosecution, the woman with her mother and brother-in-law, had gone March 17, 2008, to the casualty section of Guru Gobind Singh Hospital where Rathore touched her in an indecent manner.