Tutor accused of molesting teens he met at after-school center

March 08-- Mar. 8--An Anaheim man was arrested this week because authorities allege he molested two people he was tutoring through an after-school program.

Zeta Dhanapanth, 48, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing lewd acts, sodomy, oral copulation and aggravated sexual assault on a child, according to an Orange County Sheriff's Department statement.

Investigators allege that Dhanapanth met his two suspected victims at the Anaheim Independencia Center in an unincorporated area near Anaheim, where he worked from 2012 to 2016. The center is focused on the Spanish-speaking community, and sheriff's officials say Dhanapanth tutored children who were "struggling with the English language and math."

One teen told detectives that Dhanapanth molested him "on a regular basis at the center and in a van parked near the center" when the boy was 10 to 13 years old, the statement said. A second teen also told authorities, the statement said, that Dhanapanth molested him at the center when he was younger, but a time frame for when those alleged actions were believed to have occurred was not released.

Along with his work at the center, Dhanapanth is a private tutor, according to the Sheriff's Department, who "seeks out students by passing out flyers."

The Sheriff's Department asked that anyone with information about the case call its special-victims unit at 714-647-7419.

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