Man, 21, charged with grabbing students near UC Berkeley
At least two of the women who were accosted were UC Berkeley students and one had recently graduated, police said.
A Union City man has been charged with several counts of sexual battery targeting students near UC Berkeley last week, according to police and court papers.
Berkeley police say Aditya Chaudhary, 21, admitted to "hugging" student-aged women and was also a suspect in a 2019 investigation in Orange, California, where a student was inappropriately touched, according to court papers.
Police say they have linked Chaudhary to seven concerning reports in Berkeley, from trespassing to sexual battery. Most of them took place last week from May 8-10 in the Southside neighborhood near campus.
At least two of the women who were accosted were UC Berkeley students and one had recently graduated, police said.
Read more about sex crimes in Berkeley.
On May 8, Berkeley police say Chaudhary grabbed a young woman's buttocks in the 2600 block of Bancroft Way, right next to campus, shortly before 4 p.m.
That same day, a man matching his description, which included a distinctive red T-shirt, was caught on video attempting to hug a woman inside Doe Library on the UC Berkeley campus, police said.
On May 9, police say Chaudhary touched a woman's buttocks near Haste Street and Shattuck Avenue at 2 p.m.
He then hugged a woman and grabbed her buttocks at Haste and Atherton streets, less than two blocks away, at 2:20 p.m. according to BPD. He told the woman his name was Aditya, according to court papers.
On May 10, Chaudhary grabbed a woman's buttocks at Dwight Way and Fulton Street around 7:30 p.m., saying, "I don't mean to scare you, but what's your name?" according to court papers.
In March, city and campus police linked Chaudhary to two trespassing incidents, according to court papers.
On Wednesday, Berkeley police secured an arrest warrant for Chaudhary and, on Thursday, a judge approved GPS tracking on his cellphone.
That same day, Berkeley police said, BPD got an alert just before 1 p.m. that Chaudhary was in the area of Telegraph Avenue and Carleton Street, less than a half-mile from the UC Berkeley campus.
An officer then found him driving right next to campus, at Barrow Lane and Bancroft Way, and pulled him over.
Aditya Chaudhary. BPD
According to BPD, Chaudhary "made admissions" in connection with all seven incidents and identified himself in surveillance video related to the investigation.
He admitted to hugging 5-7 girls in recent days, police said, but "denied any inappropriate touching."
On Friday, the Alameda County district attorney's office charged Chaudhary with four counts of sexual battery. All are misdemeanors, according to court papers.
He entered not-guilty pleas Monday.
As of Tuesday, Chaudhary remains in custody with a bail of $20,000.
He is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Thursday at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.
Note: Aditya Chaudhary's booking photograph was not available at publication time but it was added to the story early Tuesday evening.
