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Charges against an Ottawa police sergeant accused of sexually assaulting a woman while on duty have been withdrawn.

Lawyer Michael Edelson said Sgt. Aasim Ansari’s defence made detailed submissions to the court on why it could not have been Ansari.

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“The Crown acted very quickly in receiving our detailed submission on why it could not be him. He could not have been the officer based on a number of different disclosures, including a misidentification,” Edelson said.

Ansari was charged by the province’s Special Investigations Unit in September 2018 after the policewatchdog announced that it had grounds to believe he had sexually assaulted a woman.

The allegations dated back to Oct. 25, 2017. Ansari was on duty in the area of Larga Baffin on Richmond Road, a residence for people from the Baffin Region and Nunavut who are in Ottawa for medical treatment, according to the allegations. The Ottawa police contacted the SIU in November 2017 after receiving a complaint.

