A screen shot of Anand Singh, under pseudonym Anand Hidley,
By Dan Murphy
The Journal News, and reporter Chris McKenna, picked up the Anand Singh story and added a few new tidbits. Thanks to McKenna for referencing Yonkerstimes.com and theYonkersledger.com for the earlier, local coverage.
County Legislator Colin Smith spoke to McKenna about his role in what is fast becoming a political scandal or who knew and when did they know it. After Singh, who worked for the Westchester County Board of Legislators, was caught in a livestream video messaging, texting and calling a 14-year old girl under decoy, it was Legislator Smith who was contacted by OBL Global, who set up the sting and livestreamed Singh getting caught in Newark NJ.
McKenna writes, “Legislator Colin Smith told the Journal News/lohud on Tuesday that a woman emailed him about the sting in December, providing a description of what happened but not the video that was posted last week. Smith said he replied to her and forwarded the message to the board clerk, who gave it to Borgia, and to the county’s Department of Public Safety.”
“The message included “a warning that this vigilante group may try to come to the Board of Legislators at some point to confront this employee,” Smith said.
“He got a similar email from another woman about Singh in February, this time saying there was evidence of the encounter, which he said he also forwarded to the Department of Public Safety. He said the women contacted him specifically because he is the chairman of one of the committees for which Singh worked,” end of LoHud.com story.
Smith’s comments verify that he knew about the accusations against Singh in December, and so did the Board Clerk and BOL Chair Borgia. Smith’s comments also clarify Borgia’s video statement a few days ago in which she said, “as soon as I became aware” of the accusations she contacted Westchester County Police. We now know that Borgia knew in December.
The Yonkers Ledger continues their noteworthy reporting on this case, and on April 20, printed a story of an interview with Singh’s ex-girlfriend. https://www.theyonkersledger.com/news/exclusive-interview-with-accused-child-sexual-predator-anand-singhs-ex-girlfriend/3229/
“GF also doesn’t think she was the only girl who Anand was speaking with. He mentioned his profiles on numerous dating apps. And at the time of their first interaction, Anand was following 5,000 girls on Instagram. GF believes that Anand would use these dating apps to meet up with as many girls as possible, as fast as possible….GF then recalled an anecdote when Anand said he was babysitting the child of a co-worker.
YL: Do you think the Board of Legislators waited too long to fire Anand? GF: Yes. As soon as this happened, OBL reached out to his job and they didn’t do anything about it. It’s negligence. Why wasn’t he suspended?” end of Yonkers Ledger story.
Nobody who worked with Singh, during his time at Yonkers City Hall, working for then Council President Mike Khader from 2019-2021, or at his time at the BOL, remembers anything unusual or suspicious about his behavior.
One Yonkers insider told us that Anand and his boss, Council President Khader, did not get along. “They hated each other,” said the source, who is very worried about what other victims of Anand Singh are out there.
“As a Yonkers mother, I want to know who else he targeted in Westchester and in Yonkers when he was working here. I don’t think this was his only victim, and that is my problem with waiting three months to take him down. I hope he didn’t hurt anyone in those three months.”
