Karnataka High Court Quashes Case Against Kodagu Homestay Owner Over US National Assault Case

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by the homestay owner challenging the charge sheet filed against him.

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has quashed criminal proceedings against the owner of a homestay in Kodagu, who was accused of failing to inform the police about the alleged rape of a US national at his property and not maintaining the required registration form for her stay.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by the homestay owner challenging the charge sheet filed against him. The owner had been booked under Section 239 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for intentional omission to give information and under Sections 7 read with 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, for allegedly failing to register the stay of the foreign national.

However, the High Court noted that the Foreigners Act, 1946, under which the owner had been booked, had been repealed in its entirety on September 1, 2025, and replaced by the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. The alleged incident took place on April 12, 2026, more than seven months after the repeal.

“Criminality cannot be conjured out of a statutory provision which had ceased to exist,” the Court observed.

The Court also examined Section 33 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which lists offences that members of the public are legally required to report. It noted that sexual offences have not been included in this category across six successive criminal procedure codes dating back to 1861.

Therefore, the Court held that the petitioner, being a private citizen, had no statutory obligation to report the alleged sexual assault. It distinguished the matter from laws such as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which specifically imposes a duty to report offences committed against children.

“Morality may expect a citizen to speak; criminal law can punish his silence only when the statute commands him to speak,” the Court said. It added that a moral expectation could not be converted into a penal obligation and that the petitioner could not be prosecuted for failing to perform a duty that the law had never imposed on him.

The Court was also informed that, in her initial oral complaint, the US national had stated that she had not informed the homestay owner or his family about the alleged rape by 45-year-old Vrijesh Kumar, a cook-cum-housekeeper at the property.

According to the complaint, she had allegedly been given sedated fruit juice after reaching the homestay on the afternoon of April 12.

Later, during a video call with the police on May 30, the complainant made an additional allegation involving taxi driver Thejas Kumar V, who had driven her from Bengaluru to the homestay after she booked the taxi through an online application. She alleged that the driver offered to provide an Ayurvedic massage and sexually assaulted her during the massage.

The police subsequently arrested the taxi driver on June 2. A charge sheet was filed on June 7 against the homestay owner, the cook-cum-housekeeper and the taxi driver.

The High Court, however, found that the criminal proceedings against the homestay owner could not be sustained on the grounds cited in the charge sheet and quashed the proceedings against him.

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