The head priest at one of Ontario’s largest Hindu temples offered to pay off a young woman in his congregation if she dropped rape charges against the temple’s president, a court ruling in the unusual case suggests. Parveen Sharma, president of the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton, was sentenced this week to two-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted earlier of two counts of sexual assault. Before the trial, the temple’s top priest met with the woman, suggesting that the temple or Sharma himself could offer her “compensation” if she withdrew the allegations, the victim alleged at trial. The priest, Abhay Dev Sharma, testified that it was the victim who had asked him for $50,000, and that he didn’t even know about the charges when he met with her. The priest told her that what had happened to her was wrong but the temple could help her.

Source: National Post May 04, 2019 19:18 UTC