Charges against the former owner of a Bowmanstown convenience store accused of the indecent assault of a customer have been bound over to Carbon County Court.

Bhaskarbhai Patel, 50, of Ben Salem, was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on Wednesday before District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton.Instead, Patel chose to waive his right to a hearing. As a result, he is scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. May 2, for a pretrial status conference in the district attorney's office at the courthouse in Jim Thorpe.Initially, Patel was scheduled to have his preliminary hearing before Kissner in December. But the alleged victim never showed up for that hearing, which meant the charges against Patel at that time were dismissed.However, that dismissal gave the commonwealth the opportunity to refile the charges at a later date.Patel faced charges of indecent assault and harassment.He remains free in lieu of $10,000 bail unsecured.According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Trooper Erin Snyder of the Pennsylvania State Police Lehighton barracks, here's what happened:On June 4, 2013, at 4:26 p.m., the victim entered Pappy's General Store, Bowmanstown, to buy a pack of cigarettes.After purchasing the cigarettes, Patel, who owned the store at that time, began to give her her change, then walked out from behind the counter to give the victim her change back, and, upon doing so, proceeded to place his arm around her, attempted to kiss her, and then grabbed her upper area with his right hand.Patel then followed the victim to her vehicle, where he proceeded to speak with a passenger in the vehicle.The victim then reported the incident to PSP Lehighton on the same date as it occurred.On June 6, around 5:35 p.m., Snyder, along with Trooper Joseph Campbell, arrived at Pappy's General Store to speak with Patel about the incident.Patel denied intentionally touching the victim, and, instead, said that he was giving the victim a hug and may have accidentally touched her upper area, but denied "cupping" or "squeezing" her upper area.While speaking with Patel, Snyder observed several surveillance cameras located within the store.Snyder asked Patel if the cameras were in working order. He answered that they were not.Snyder then requested to view the area where the surveillance cameras are controlled and Patel agreed.Patel then led Snyder and Campbell to the basement of the store, where Patel pointed to a computer, indicating that the computer controls the cameras.The screen of the computer was black, but the light at the bottom right of the monitor was orange, indicating the monitor was in screen save mode.Snyder then asked Patel if she could turn on the computer screen and Patel agreed. Upon pushing the button, a four-paned surveillance view of the store appeared on the screen. The date and time stamp on each pane was consistent with the current date and time.Snyder questioned Patel as to why he was not honest about the surveillance system being in working order. Patel said he did not know anything about computers; only his son did, and the last Patel was aware, the surveillance cameras were not in working order.Snyder then requested Patel provide a written statement to the events that occurred in the incident, to which Patel agreed.On June 7, at around 9:30 a.m., Patel arrived at state police barracks in Lehighton, with his son, in order to provide a written statement describing the events that occurred during the incident.While providing the written statement, Snyder asked Patel's son if he could provide her with a copy of surveillance footage on the date and time this incident was alleged to have occurred. He agreed and said that he would do so.Patel continued to say that he may have touched the victim's upper area while giving her a hug, and that it was an accident, and not done intentionally.On June 10, at around 9 a.m., Patel's son arrived at the Lehighton barracks, and provided Snyder with a DVD of the surveillance footage from the date and time the incident was alleged to have occurred.After obtaining the DVD, Snyder viewed the surveillance footage from June 4, at which time she observed the following:The victim walked into the store and purchased a pack of cigarettes, at which time Patel provided the victim with her change, then pulled the change back and came out from behind the counter and put his arm around the victim's shoulders and attempted to kiss her.While attempting to kiss the victim, Patel put his right hand on her upper area, and squeezed it. During the entire interaction with Patel, the victim was clearly attempting to get away from him, police said.Editor's note: Pappy's Corner Store, located at 600 White Street, Bowmanstown, is now run by Kedar Kankia, who took over ownership on Sept. 13.Patel was the owner of the store at the time the alleged incident occurred in June.Kankia previously stressed that the new ownership has nothing to do with Patel, the former owner.