Hamilton (New Zealand), July 24, 2019:
By Gurbir Singh:
A 32-year-old Sikh priest from India has been found guilty of six charges of sexual conduct with a child by an Auckland District Court.
The judge-alone trial started on June 18 after the accused pleaded not guilty. But at the end of his trial last Thursday, Judge Nevin Dawson pronounced a guilty verdict of groping of bottoms of two victims, both under the age of 12 years at that time in a West Auckland gurudwara.
The offences occurred between January and October 2017.
According to the prosecution, accused lured the two victims separately into a store room within the temple complex and groped their bottoms.
Both children reportedly attended classes at the gurudwara to “learn about Sikh culture, the Punjabi language, and traditional music.”
In an interview the prosecution played to the District Court at Sajan Singh’s trial, one of the child told the court he asked for her help with tasks in the gurudwara's storeroom, where he touched her bottom in ways that made her "feel disgusted".
She described “running away from him”, and said he approached her later to say, "sorry, but thank you".
She said his behaviour "shocked and terrified" her.
The girl first told her mother about the indecent act and her parents later informed the police after it became known that another child was also a victim of his assault.
Some parts of the temple had security cameras. but a storeroom where she was allegedly molested did not have one.
Sajjan Singh was released on bail and will now be sentenced in September. According to his lawyer, he would be deported to India after serving his sentence.
The Sikh priest had first travelled to New Zealand in 2015 as the holder of a religious worker visa, and later re-entered the country in January 2017 on the same visa which expired in October 2017.
He applied for an extension of his visa, which was declined after he was charged with criminal offences. His appeal to the Immigration Tribunal was also rejected in April 2018.
His two brothers also live in NZ and worked as priests at the gurudwara when the incidents occurred.
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This news-story was first published in PressReader by Gurbir Singh, a Freelance Journalist, based in Hamilton (NZ).