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Mukesh Yasarapu, Vancouver Man, Charged After 2 Sexual Assaults On Buses

Two women claim they were sexually assaulted at the Phibbs Bus Exchange in North Vancouver a week apart...
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A Vancouver man has been charged in two separate sexual assaults on buses that left from the same North Vancouver stop earlier this month.

On April 5 at 7:45 a.m., a Japanese exchange student boarded a bus headed to Vancouver at the Phibbs Bus Exchange, according to a Transit Police news release. She said that a man sat next to her — even though the bus was mostly empty. For 10 minutes, he touched her inappropriately, trying to place her hand between his legs and also attempting to kiss her.

"She rebuffed his advances but he was persistent until he got off the bus," said spokeswoman Anne Drennan. The student later told her Canadian host who then reported the incident to police.

On April 12, exactly a week later, a second woman boarded a bus at the same stop headed to Vancouver around 7:48 a.m. She said a man sat with her and started to grope her, again on a nearly empty bus.

Mukesh Yasarapu, 27, was charged after two women each reported being assaulted on buses that left Phibbs Bus Exchange, according to a transit police news release.

Drennan said the women's descriptions of the suspect matched, and Yasarapu was arrested on April 19 — again at the Phibbs Bus Exchange.

Yasarapu is charged with two counts of sexual assault. He's been released on the conditions that he stay in the province, surrender his passport and refrain from sitting or standing next to a woman while taking transit.

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