HKU virologist spared conviction for assaulting man and damaging his phone
A University of Hong Kong (HKU) virologist has been spared a criminal conviction for assaulting a man and damaging his mobile phone at a railway station last year. Eastern Court on Friday placed Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran on a two-year bind-over order and instructed him to pay HK$800 (US$102) in damages, after he admitted attacking a stranger at Hong Kong MTR station on August 17, 2025. The…
A University of Hong Kong virologist, Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran, has been spared a criminal conviction for assaulting a man and damaging his mobile phone at a railway station last year. Eastern Court placed Dhanasekaran, a 48-year-old associate professor, on a two-year bind-over order and instructed him to pay HK$800 in damages.
The incident occurred on August 17, 2025, when Dhanasekaran, who heads the university’s pathogen evolution lab, got into a "trivial dispute" with retiree Raimundo Kwok Chun-tung inside a lift at Hong Kong MTR station. Dhanasekaran knocked Kwok's Samsung Galaxy Note 20 to the ground, pushed him several times, and kicked the phone out of the lift.
Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage, provided Dhanasekaran accepted the bind-over order.
Brief written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's own syndicated text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
