4 min readBengaluruJun 9, 2026 04:19 PM IST
First published on: Jun 9, 2026 at 12:25 PM IST
The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the state government to produce the investigation records conducted to date on a rape case in Kodagu district filed in April, based on a complaint by a 33-year-old US citizen.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, while hearing a petition by a homestay owner, who was arrested on April 22 along with his worker, asked Additional State Public Prosecutor B N Jagadeesha to secure all the investigation papers and place them before the court on Wednesday, the next date of hearing.
The homestay owner was accused of protecting the accused resort worker, a Jharkhand native, and failing to inform the police about the crime that took place on April 12, while the worker was charged with rape and criminal intimidation.
Advocate Angad Kamath, appearing for the petitioner, briefly argued that this is a brazen case where the petitioner’s fundamental rights are violated. The bench replied to it by saying, “This is not a case where I could issue a blanket stay order straightaway. So I want to see the investigation papers.”
Kamath then argued, “I have challenged the legality of my arrest and sought Rs 15 lakh compensation for wrongfully arresting me. The reason is that the allegations in the complaint are not that I have committed rape; the allegations against me are that I have hushed up this complaint.”
‘Rape of a foreign citizen here a very serious offence’
The bench, while adjourning the case to Wednesday, orally said, “A citizen of another country is raped here, it is a very serious offence”.
The homestay owner has approached the court seeking to quash the offence registered against him under sections 64(1) for rape, 351(2) for criminal intimidation, 238, and 239 for concealing design to commit an offence and giving false information, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The petitioner has contended that the complainant’s statement given to the police under Section 180 of BNSS, on which the entire prosecution rests, at no point alleges that the homestay owner was informed of the alleged offence.
The police have stated that the petitioner had forced the complainant to stay, told her not to inform the police, and prevented her from communicating with others. Contrary to the prosecution’s case, the resort owner had said, “This presupposes a fact (his knowledge of the alleged offence) that the complainant has not pleaded, and that the record positively negates.”
The petition also claims that the prosecution’s narrative is, in any event, documentarily disproved by the complainant’s own contemporaneous record. It is said that “Within 17 minutes of the alleged offence, she (the US citizen) sent the petitioner an effusive, emoji-laden WhatsApp message thanking him for the Wi-Fi connectivity she had just received. The next morning, she wrote a long, defiant email to seven recipients, including her parents, her boyfriend, her sister, and her employer, making no reference to any offence; on the same day, she travelled openly with the petitioner’s mother and wife to the Sub-Registrar’s Office at Ponnampet, where she greeted a family business associate enthusiastically”.
The homestay owner also stated that three days later, the complainant had undertaken a full-day excursion to the Bylakuppe Golden Temple and an elephant camp with a hired driver, photographing and videoing throughout.
Case background
The homestay worker allegedly spiked the tourist’s drink and sexually assaulted her on April 12. According to the Karnataka Police, the incident only came to light in the third week of April after the survivor, who was travelling solo, alerted officials at the US embassy following her departure from the homestay to Mysore. The resort worker and the homestay owner were arrested on April 22.
The district court earlier granted bail to the homestay owner on May 2, while rejecting the bail plea of the 45-year-old resort worker on June 4.
The Karnataka High Court orally said, “A citizen of another country is raped here, it is a very serious offence". 
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