Bengaluru, Jan. 26: In an incident that has striking similarities to the events depicted in the thriller movie ‘Drishyam’, two men allegedly murdered a gold loan firm worker for money and threw his body and his bike into a lake. The incident took place in Bengaluru and the police have arrested both the accused.
B Divakar, 29, a resident of Banashankari who worked with a gold loan company, had left home on January 20 never to return. A missing complaint was lodged by his mother with the Puttenahalli police the next day. The police, who took up the probe, found out that Divakar’s phone was switched off near Sunkadakatte in West Bengaluru on January 20 morning. After an analysis of the victim’s call records, the police zeroed in on one, Manjunath, who had made the last call to the victim.
“Manjunath, a coconut vendor, was questioned and during the interrogation, he confessed to having murdered Divakar with the help of his associate Muniraju, who worked in a bar and was arrested later. The duo revealed that they had borrowed huge loans and were not able to pay them back. They were in dire need of money and hence decided to make money by illegal means. They got to know that some gold loan companies were offering doorstep delivery of services and they came across SSR gold loan when they Googled. They contacted the firm and claimed they wanted to pledge their gold and booked a doorstep service.
Divakar was sent by the firm to collect the gold. On January 20, an unsuspecting Divakar went to Manjuanth’s house. As per the plan, Manjuanth and Muniraju robbed cash Rs. 4 lakh from Divakar. But Divakar resisted their attack and the accused murdered him by strangulation,” the police said.
To dispose of the body, the duo waited till night. “The stuffed the body in a bag and the duo took it on Divakar’s bike to a lake in Magadi taluk. They tied the body, the bike, and a stone together and dumped them in the lake so that the body will not come up. They led us to the lake where they had thrown the body and the body has been recovered,” the police said.
