In 2013, the Malayalam thriller Drishyam captivated audiences with its tale of a man who cleverly concealed a murder from the police. What was fiction for many turned into a chilling blueprint for a real-life crime in Karnataka. Over a decade later, in 2024, a routine missing person report would begin to unravel a murder that had remained hidden for years—eerily similar to the cinematic plot that inspired it.
On August 12, 2024, a man named Balaraju arrived at the Magadi police station, deeply concerned about his missing friend, Lalitha. A beautician known to many as Divya, the 30-year-old woman had disappeared without a trace from Madanayakanahalli, a suburb on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Balaraju’s complaint would set off an investigation that revealed a far more sinister story beneath the surface.
Divya had been living apart from her husband, Umesh, for two years and was raising their five-year-old son alone while going through divorce proceedings. As police dug deeper into her disappearance, the layers of deceit began to unfold—leading investigators to a Drishyam-style cover-up that had successfully kept a murder hidden for years.
