An instructor at a Chevy Chase music school is accused of molesting two 7-year-old girls during private lessons and was arrested while boarding a flight in New York to try to flee the country, Maryland officials said Tuesday.

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       Priyant Sundas, 30, faces two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and six counts of third-degree sex offense, according to court records. It was not clear Tuesday whether he had retained an attorney or been brought back to Maryland.

       Montgomery County police say the girls were fondled during lessons at the Chevy Chase Arts Academy.

       “We reported to the authorities as soon as we became aware of the situation and are fully cooperating with their investigation,” the academy’s director, Levon Mikaelian, said in an email. “Unfortunately, we cannot comment any further due to it being an open case.”

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       The school on Brookville Road provides lessons in voice, piano, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, violin and saxophone, according to its website.

       On Oct. 25, while speaking to her mother in a parking lot outside the academy, one of the girls said Sundas had inappropriately touched her, police said. The second girl, according to police, also had a music lesson that day and told her parents about inappropriate touching. Authorities interviewed both girls on Oct. 26.

       In court papers, detectives said Sundas had asked them to make notes on a whiteboard, at which point he fondled them while standing behind them or sitting next to them.

       Police said Sundas had taught at the Chevy Chase school since October 2020. Before that, he taught music in Northern Virginia.

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       “During the investigation, it was learned that Sundas had purchased a plane ticket in an attempt to flee the country,” police officials said in a statement Tuesday, adding that Sundas was arrested Sunday “by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the JFK International Airport as he attempted to board his flight.”

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