Gurdarshan Singh — Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Potomac, Maryland
A granthi and piano teacher who pleaded guilty in Montgomery County in 1997 to fourth-degree sexual offense against a piano student aged 11–13, and received a fully suspended sentence. Reporting in 2020 said the foundation kept him in his role for 23 years after the plea; the foundation apologized and said the full scope had been undisclosed — a claim the survivor's parents dispute. The plea is the court record; the retention is attributed reporting, and this file keeps them apart.
Sikh Pleaded guilty
- Person
- Gurdarshan Singh
- Role
- Granthi and kirtan teacher; piano teacher
- Institution
- Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Potomac, Maryland
- Location
- Montgomery County, Maryland
- Status
- Pleaded guilty (1997) — Sexual Offense in the Fourth Degree
- Sentence
- Originally 1 year, suspended, with 18 months' probation; resentenced August 1997 to 360 days, suspended. No imprisonment served
Case in brief
Tier 1 · Court-proven — the plea, as a federal appellate court recites the Maryland record
Gurdarshan Singh served the Washington-area Sikh community as a spiritual leader and gave piano lessons to its children. In 1996 he was accused of improperly touching a piano student he had taught from 1989 to 1991, when the student was between eleven and thirteen. In January 1997 he pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County to one count of Sexual Offense in the Fourth Degree (Md. Code, Art. 27, § 464(C)). His sentence — one year, suspended, with eighteen months’ probation — was revisited in August 1997, when he was resentenced to 360 days, likewise suspended, and the plea was clarified to subsection § 464(C)(a)(1). He served no imprisonment. The record survives in quotable form because a federal appeals court later recited it in full in his immigration case: he was ordered removed, but in February 2000 an immigration judge deferred his removal under the Convention Against Torture, and he remained in the United States. He was not deported.
The record
Tier 1 · Court-proven
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Accusation | 1996 — improper touching of a piano student, aged 11–13 during 1989–1991 |
| Guilty plea | January 1997 (entered April 9, 1997) — one count, Sexual Offense in the Fourth Degree, Art. 27 § 464(C) |
| Original sentence | 1 year, suspended; 18 months’ probation |
| Resentence | August 1997 — 360 days, suspended; plea clarified to § 464(C)(a)(1) |
| Immigration | Removal ordered; deferral granted February 2000 (Convention Against Torture); remained in the U.S. |
Status
Sentence completed long ago (all custody suspended). His later expungement of the Maryland record is claimed by SikhPA and by the survivor’s family; no expungement order was inspected for this build, so the expungement is carried as an attributed claim, not a verified fact.
Attributed allegations — not court findings
Tier 2 · Attributed allegations
The retention story is reporting — the Sikh Press Association’s, October 2020 — and both sides of it are carried here. SikhPA reported that Singh remained in his role at the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation until resigning in 2020, twenty-three years after his plea, still regularly working around women and children, and that the foundation’s leadership was ‘heavily criticised for hushing up the issue.’ The foundation’s own statement of October 1, 2020, as SikhPA reported it, apologized to the survivor and her parents and said it had kept Singh involved ‘as the full scope of the abuse was undisclosed,’ confirming his resignation. The survivor’s parents, in a statement SikhPA reproduced in full, dispute that: they state the Board knew of the arrest and allegations in 1996, came to their home to pressure them to withdraw the case, and supported his continued employment teaching kirtan for 23 years. This archive states the plea as fact and the retention dispute as what it is — two attributed accounts that do not agree.
Records requested & responses
This archive has not filed records requests in this case. The file rests on the published sources below and will be updated if court or institutional records are obtained, or if that changes.
Sources
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Singh v. Keisler, No. 06-1948 (November 20, 2007) — recites the Maryland plea, both sentences, and the immigration history in full: cases.justia.com
- Sikh Press Association (October 15, 2020) — quotes the Montgomery County court documents verbatim; reports the 23-year retention and the 2020 resignation; reproduces the foundation’s October 1, 2020 statement and the parents’ response: sikhpa.com
Filed October 25, 2026, from the published sources below. Minor victims are never named or identified in this file.