How a ‘beer party’ in Bengaluru police station led to the arrest of a British woman’s rapist

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In the first week of January 1996, Bengaluru police received a tip-off about a foreigner’s body dumped in a desolate patch of Chandra Layout in the city’s western outskirts.

When officers reached the scene, they found the victim’s pockets contained a bill from a clothing store on MG Road. A quick check with the store led to the identification of the deceased: 36-year-old British national James William Stuart. Further inquiries revealed that Stuart had been staying at Sudha Lodge in Cottonpet.

But as the police began retracing his last movements, the probe into the foreigner’s murder uncovered another shocking crime. In the process of reaching out to Stuart’s partner, investigators learnt that she had been brutally raped.

A meticulous investigation—and an unusual “beer party” staged inside a police station—would ultimately help the city police trap the rapist and crack open the case.

When the police reached the lodge, they found a 27-year-old British woman in Stuart’s room. B B Ashok Kumar, who was then a police inspector in JJ Nagar, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying: “I was among the police personnel who visited the lodge. As she opened the doors, she broke into tears. Even before we could tell her that we had found Stuart’s body, she cried and told us that she had been raped by an autorickshaw driver. We were baffled for a minute and did not disclose the murder to her. We had thought that the persons who had killed Stuart had raped the woman, but later discovered that they were two separate incidents.”

The British woman told a Bengaluru court that she and Stuart were in a relationship and had travelled to India to visit the Taj Mahal, before touring Karnataka’s heritage sites. In Bengaluru, they checked into Sudha Lodge in Cottonpet. On the evening of January 4, 1996, the couple went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Midway through the meal, Stuart complained of stomach pain and returned to the lodge. His partner finished her dinner alone but lost her way while trying to get back.

After losing her way, the British woman hired an autorickshaw to return to her lodge. Exhausted, she dozed off during the ride. The driver, instead of heading towards Cottonpet, diverted the vehicle towards Rajarajeshwari Nagar, then a largely deserted stretch. When she realised something was wrong and asked him to stop, he ignored her. Armed with a small penknife, she stabbed him thrice from behind in self-defence, but he retaliated and overpowered her. The driver then took her to an isolated spot, where he raped and assaulted her before fleeing.

According to the report, the injured women, later, taking the help of a truck driver, managed to reach the Central police station in Chamarajpet around 11.30 pm. There were two police constables on duty, but they did not understand English and instead helped her reach Sudha Lodge. In his book, Buller Savari, Ashok Kumar observes that the police constables could have alerted senior officers, but they did not.

How a nurse helped police probe

At the time, Praveen Sood—now CBI Director and then serving as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru West—assigned Ashok Kumar to investigate the rape case, while Inspector Abdul Azeem was tasked with probing Stuart’s murder.

The twin crimes drew widespread coverage in the international media, sparking concern over the safety of foreigners in India, particularly in Bengaluru.

After the case was handed to him, Ashok Kumar formed a new investigation team and took the victim to his residence for safety. “She was in shock and trauma,” Kumar was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.

“I introduced her to my wife and daughter. Gradually, she felt secure and began sharing details of the attack, including that the autorickshaw driver had taken Mysore Road,” he added.

Despite the victim’s account, tracking the autorickshaw driver proved difficult. “The only lead was that she had stabbed him three times,” Ashok Kumar recalled. He began visiting clinics and hospitals within a 100-metre radius of RR Nagar, searching for anyone with matching injuries.

A breakthrough came when a nurse from Kerala at Sowbagya Nursing Home near Azad Nagar reported treating a man two days earlier for back injuries. The patient had registered himself as Kadiresh, 28, but had not provided an address, giving the police their first solid lead.

Kadiresh, who lived just behind the Kengeri Gate police station, was arrested by the police after the team raided his residence and also seized the clothes that he was wearing on the day of the crime.

Before Kadiresh could be formally taken to the police station, Ashok Kumar’s team was instructed to bring him directly to the DCP’s office. Facing mounting pressure from the media, the British High Commission, and the public, the case was subsequently transferred to the Corps of Detectives (COD)—which would later be renamed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in 2009.

A beer party in police station

The Indian Express reported that after handing over Kadiresh to COD, Ashok Kumar and his team stayed away from the case. However, Kadiresh neither confessed to the rape incident nor did he speak when interrogated by COD officers.

COD officials initially struggled to get Kadiresh to speak. “Though harsh interrogation methods were common, we did not lay a hand on him. He remained silent,” recalled Ashok Kumar.

Seeking guidance, the team turned to Praveen Sood, who instructed them to bring Kadiresh into custody without torture, citing the case’s sensitivity. Kumar, along with ACP B.A. Ponnacha and two COD officers, then took Kadiresh to JJ Nagar police station.

Adopting a friendly approach, Kumar offered Kadiresh beer, secretly spiked with 180 ml of brandy per bottle. Over 25 minutes, Kadiresh drank both bottles. Once relaxed, he casually recounted the events of the day he raped the British woman, even patting Ponnacha on the shoulder, unaware that the entire conversation was being recorded.

Conviction

With Kadiresh’s confession secured, the COD filed a charge sheet against him before a special court in Bengaluru. The document included the victim’s testimony, medical evidence, and statements from other witnesses, including the nurse who had treated him.

In 1998, the court sentenced Kadiresh to life imprisonment, bringing closure to the high-profile case. Based on the crime, a Kannada movie, Police Officers, was released in 2002.