South Asian Man Charged With Transit Sex Assaults Allowed Back On Buses

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Mukesh Yasarapu has been released from custody on a number of conditions, including that he not sit or stand next to females on transit.

VANCOUVER – A 27-year-old South Asian man from Vancouver charged in two separate sex assaults on city buses has been told he can still ride transit.

On April 19, VPD officers arrested suspect Mukesh Yasarapu at the Phibbs Bus Exchange. He has since been released on a number of conditions, including that he surrender his passport and stay in B.C.

Police said the victims, a Japanese exchange student and another young woman, were assaulted this month by a man who boarded their buses at the Phibbs Bus Exchange in North Vancouver and sat down next to them, reported CTV news.

“He continually made inappropriate advances toward the women by touching them inappropriately – taking their hand, putting it between his legs,” Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said.

“The guy got on the bus, sat down beside her but he didn’t have to, the bus was only a quarter full and then for the next ten minutes touched her inappropriately even though she several times she tried to move away from him,” Drennan explains.

“He touched her repeatedly inappropriately and tried to put her hands in between his legs and to kiss her, she tried to rebuff his advances but he was extremely persistent, right until he got onto the bus at Main and Hastings.”

Exactly a week later another young woman came forward with the same story.

In each assault, the man persisted for about 10 minutes before finally getting off the bus, according to police.

A justice of the peace also decided Yasarapu can continue to ride transit provided he doesn’t sit or stand next to any women or girls – a condition bus driver Sean Korman said is impossible to enforce.

“We can’t monitor every single passenger,” Korman said.

Drennan said police always request that suspects in similar cases be banned from transit, but their requests are regularly denied.

“The Justice System very often lets them still ride transit but with some form of condition,” Drennan said. “They do this typically because they feel that these people have no other means of transportation.”

Yasarapu, who wasn’t previously known to police, appeared in Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday.