The feds say a man took his desires into his own hands in front of other passengers after he very aggressively and unsuccessfully tried to pick up a woman he was harassing on an international flight to Boston.
Krishna Kunapuli, 39, of India, faces charges of lewd, indecent and obscene acts while in U.S. airspace for the alleged show he put on about four hours into the Monday flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Boston.
He made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston on before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy Tuesday afternoon where he was advised he a has a right to notify the India consulate of his arrest and had an attorney appointed. A detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
It all started, according to the criminal complaint, when Kunapuli took a special interest in a woman sitting alone in a three-seat middle section seven rows behind him on Etihad Airways Flight 7.
At some point Kunapuli allegedly asked the woman if he could sit in one of the empty seats while he waited for a toilet to be available, according to the complaint. The woman obliged and he sat but quickly started talking about “her looks, telling her that she was beautiful,” the complaint alleges, and asked if she would stay night with him in Boston for $5,000 — telling her that he was a very wealthy man as he reached out and brushed her hair back with his fingers.
The woman said she was having trouble connecting to the airplane’s wi-fi, likely as a way to alert a flight attendant that she was being accosted, the complaint suggests. Kunapuli allegedly followed her to the aft galley and continued to harass her and touch her.
“Passenger 1 told KUNAPULI to step back and stop touching her hair on multiple occasions but he either ignored this completely or would apologize but then start his actions again,” the complaint states. She told a crew member they weren’t a couple, and that Kunapuli was making unwanted advances, so the crew member told them to return to their respective, and separate, seats.
Kunapuli complied, but was allegedly still sexually hung up and took matters into his own hands. The male passenger in the aisle seat in Kunapuli’s section — the middle seat was empty — told a crew member that he saw movement under Kunapuli’s blanket and that the man continued even after the blanket fell, exposing his actions. Another passenger, on the aisle seat in the middle section to the right of Kunapuli attested to the same thing after he awoke from his nap, the complaint states.
A crew member went to check on the complaints, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jason Costello, and confirmed the situation. The pilot called ahead and the FBI agent and members of Massachusetts State Police were ready at Logan International Airport to arrest Kunapuli.
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