Bengaluru: Filmmaker thrashed for no fault

What’s in a reputation? One’s protection evidently, as Shiva Kumar N, a Sandalwood director will inform you.

In the wee hours of Monday, two strangers barged into the filmmaker’s area and beat him black and blue, asking him to pay up the Rs 2 lakh he owed a financier. What’s absolutely bizarre is the fact that neither does the filmmaker owe anyone money, nor does he know any financier. In truth, he perceived to don't have any clue about what the two men had been even referring to.

The event spread out on June four when Shiva Kumar N, a resident of Kasturba Nagar, Mysore Road, heard loud voices outdoor his flat. Two men had been strolling round together with his photograph and searching for him.

“They had been taking my identify, so I opened the door, and the attackers had been status there. They pushed me in, and started to hit me. They punched me within the left eye, and I started to bleed. They did not stop there. The two dragged me out of the house, tore my clothes and started to hit me in front of my neighbours. They even attacked my wife. Luckily, one of the neighbour dialled 100, and the Hoysala patrolling vehicle turned up,” he advised BM.

And identical to any low price range crime thriller, the real story was once revealed the following morning.

“I went again to the police station tomorrow, and discovered that the two had been asked by way of their uncle to track a undeniable ‘Shiva Kumar NS’, who had it seems that borrowed Rs2 lakh from a financier-friend. Their job was once to get well the money. I advised the police that it was once now not me. At first, the law enforcement officials did not consider me, and asked why would anyone come searching for me if I used to be innocent?” Shiva Kumar says.

Upon the filmmaker’s insistence, the ‘uncle’, who was once later identified as Ranganath, was once asked to return to the police station. “I asked him if he knew me and whether I had taken any money from any of his pals. He mentioned he didn’t know who I used to be,” Shiva Kumar provides. Ranganath additionally confirmed that the financier had lent the money to Shiva Kumar N on the word of a clergyman (a commonplace friend) who stood in as a guarantor.

So how did this situation of fallacious identification even happen? The two men, both of their mid-20s, were given a telephone quantity for a undeniable ‘Shiva Kumar’, and asked to track him down and get well the money. Deciding to play Sherlock Holmes, they started by way of taking a look up the quantity on Truecaller, and the identify that popped up was once Shiva Kumar NS. They then determined to visit Facebook (because that’s the place one is going this present day to ensure data) and found a Shiva Kumar NS. Unfortunately, that profile belonged to the filmmaker, who had incidentally added ‘S’ for his social media account.

The two geniuses then scoured during the filmmaker’s profile, framed questions accordingly, and dialled the quantity they were given. When the unique Shiva Kumar picked up the phone, they started asking him questions on ‘his movies’ without telling him who they had been. The borrower performed alongside and started boasting of his connections with Sandalwood. The attackers had been satisfied that the Facebook profile they noticed was once the man they spoke to on the telephone. They downloaded his photos and went searching for him.

It has been reported that the two had been additionally under the influence of alcohol throughout the ‘seek advice from’ to the director’s area. The primary attacker has been identified as Varun (28) who went together with his associate. The Byatarayanapura police have mentioned: “We have detained the attackers, and they have been despatched to jail after the investigation. We have booked them under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 448 (area trespass), 323 (voluntarily inflicting harm), 504 (intentional insult with intent to impress breach of peace).”