A 30-year-old music teacher who was arrested late last year after being accused of sexually abusing a teen girl is now facing added charges of possession of child pornography.
Rakesh Jhaveri, of Sunrise, was arrested in November after a 15-year-old girl and her parents reported to police that she had been sexually abused by him since 2023, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was a friend of the girl’s family and had known her since she was 8 years old.
When the girl was 13 years old, she started taking music lessons with Jhaveri at the studio Music Legacies in Pembroke Pines. Most of the instances of abuse happened at the studio while the girl was supposed to be taking music lessons, according to the affidavit.
Jhaveri and the music business are named as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed last week by a Jane Doe and Father Doe that details similar allegations, according to the lawsuit complaint. An attorney representing the anonymous girl did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.
Initially arrested on multiple counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a victim between 12 and 16 years old, he was charged in January with two more counts, both charges of possession of child pornography, court records show.
Pembroke Pines Sgt. Jason Palant said in an email Wednesday that detectives found files on Jhaveri’s cellphone during their initial investigation that met the criteria for child pornography, but Palant did not provide further details.
“In coordination with the State Attorney’s Office, an arrest warrant was subsequently obtained for these charges,” Palant said. “Mr. Jhaveri was taken into custody by the Broward Sheriff’s Office during a related court appearance.”
Additional details of the investigation leading to the added charges are not available in court records.