Musician guilty of sexual assault

A renowned Indian musician has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage girl who had been taking music lessons at his Montgomery County home.

A jury deliberated seven hours before finding Shafaatullah Khan, 42, of King of Prussia, guilty of corrupting a minor, indecent assault, and unlawful contact with a minor.

"The family trusted him so much, the daughter played keyboard at his wedding," said James Zoll, assistant district attorney, who prosecuted the case.

Zoll said the abuse happened while the two were practicing for a concert that was held at the Kimmel Center in 2007.

Khan, a native of India who has been a U.S. citizen since 1995, plays sitar and surbahar (stringed instruments) and tabla (a drum), and teaches Indian classical music on an array of instruments. He is featured on at least 16 CDs, has played in concerts throughout the world, and is featured in an Imax documentary film called

Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey

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Khan had given the girl, then 14, keyboard lessons at his home in the fall of 2006 and the following winter.

When she told him her backpack gave her back pain, he showed her stretches and gave her a massage, the girl said at a preliminary hearing in May.

As her lessons continued, the massages went further, and he asked her to take off her shirt and bra and touched her breasts, she said. She alleged that at a lesson in December, Khan got on top of her with his clothes on and made sexual comments to her while thrusting his hips.

The girl said that she told Khan in February 2007 to stop touching her, and that he complied. She did not tell her parents about her allegations until a year later. After she did, she provided police with e-mails confiding the incidents to friends, according to a criminal complaint.

Zoll said the young girl was happy with the guilty verdict.

She "can now start to get over this and try to move on," Zoll said.