A former student of an Edmonton driving instructor accused of enticing female students into a life of prostitution said she is relieved the man will never teach woman again.
Gauri Chopra, 23, was new to Edmonton when she first signed on to take driving lessons under the Alberta Defensive Driving School in November 2007.
When she first met business owner Vishva Juneja, Chopra said she was instantly uncomfortable in his school.
"When I first met him, one of the first things he said to the girls was that, 'I like calling my students sweetie and baby and you know honey,' which definitely put me in a very uncomfortable place," she said.
Juneja, 63, has since been charged with two counts of keeping a common bawdy house, three counts of procuring and three counts of living off the avails.
Police allege the owner would use his position as a driving instructor to get his female students to work in one of his two massage parlors.
His business and driving instructor license has since been revoked.
While Chopra said she was never propositioned during her lessons, she said began to grow suspicious of her driving instructor.
She said there were times when he would call to cancel her in-car lessons and her caller I.D. would show the names of adult video stores.
Then, during a two-hour lesson in his car, she overheard a phone conversation allegedly between Juneja and a young female employee.
Chopra said the two were speaking Hindi while on speakerphone. She said her driving instructor wasn't aware that she was also fluent in the language.
She then alleges she heard the young worker telling Juneja that she knew police were on their way to the bawdy house and she didn't have any identification on her.
"(He said,) 'What I am going to ask you to do is sit to the side and tell the police that if they do ask that you are just a friend and you are visiting one of the girls that works there,'" she allegedly heard him say.
Chopra said she felt so uncomfortable with Juneja that she never completed her lessons.
Juneja's lawyer appeared in an Edmonton courtroom Monday on his behalf.
His next court date is scheduled for August 14.
