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	Bellevue Temple Leader Charged with Child Molestation By Levi Pulkkinen Seattle Post-Intelligencer December 16, 2010 http://www.seattlepi.com/local/430927_temple29.html Prosecutors have filed child molestation charges against a religious leader at a Bellevue temple, alleging the man sexually abused a preteen girl for months. Filing charges earlier this month, King County prosecutors say Vinay Keshavan Bharadwaj used his position as a religious leader at a Vedic temple in Bellevue to gain the then-preteen girl's trust. Bharadwaj is alleged to have molested her numerous times in 2008 and 2009. Writing the court, Redmond Detective Patty Neorr said she met with the girl in July. At their meeting, the detective recalled, the girl said she'd met Bharadwaj while attending a religious group at the Vedic Temple in Bellevue. According to charging documents, Bharadwaj, who was trained in India, was leading the services at the temple her family attended. In November 2008, Bharadwaj, 35, began spending more time with the girl, Neorr continued. He often visited her home, the detective said, often stopping by while her parents were away. Bharadwaj soon became physical with the girl, kissing her on several occasions, Neorr said. At the time, he was 33 years old; the girl was 12. Writing the court, the detective described an event weeks later. Per the detective's description, Bharadwaj was performing a healing ceremony for an ill relative of the girl and agreed to take the girl home from the hospital. Instead, he is alleged to have taken her to his Redmond apartment and molested her before taking her to the Bellevue temple. Prosecutors claim Bharadwaj continued to have sexual relations with the girl until April 2009. Neorr told the court she obtained a search warrant for the girl's phone and found numerous late-night phone calls between her and Bharadwaj. In filing charges, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carol Spoor argued that Bharadwaj's abuse of the girl had continued for months, and that he'd taken pains to hide the abuse from the girl's family. "The state is concerned about the defendant's abuse of his position of trust with the victim and her family," Spoor said in court documents. Bharadwaj has been charged with three counts of second-degree child molestation. On Nov. 18, a King County Superior Court judge ordered that Bharadwaj be jailed on $50,000. Currently out of custody, he is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.
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