The fate of a pandit, who allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at her East Bank Essequibo (EBE) home sometime between last October and early this year, will soon be determined.
The child hanged herself one week after her father took her to make a police report against the religious leader, who is a candidate of the People Progressive Party (PPP).
This morning, a police source who is part of the investigation said that a file has been prepared into the allegation of sexual assault made against the pandit and was sent today to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.
He explained that there are two teams working on the case—one team from the Sexual Offense Unit is dealing with the allegation of sexual assault while a second team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is looking into the child’s suicide.
A post mortem examination will be done tomorrow on her remains. Once the cause of death is officially confirmed, CID ranks will then start working on a second file to send to the DPP for advice.
As it relates to the sexual assault allegation, this news agency has been informed that the pandit, who is a family friend of the victim’s family, would frequent the deceased’s home where she lived with her father and two siblings—ages 15 and seven.
Her mother, who resides in neighbouring Suriname, explained that her daughter called her two weeks ago and related that the pandit went over to her home and gave her $5000 and he asked her to sit in his lap, which she did.
According to the woman, her daughter further claimed that the pandit then began touching her inappropriately. “She said she got up and asked him what nonsense he was doing.”
Prior to this incident, the pandit is said to have been sending the teen inappropriate text messages and had obscene conversations with her. The child was allegedly afraid to complain against the pandit since he was close with her family.
It was only after she informed her mother of what had happened that the matter was reported when the mother subsequently contacted the father.
The pandit has since denied the allegation through his lawyer, Sanjeev Datadin, who claimed that the police investigation against his client was centered around improper text messages and nothing else.
Datadin said that the pandit denied sending inappropriate text messages to the child. He has been placed on $150,000 bail.
