How a ‘dead’ man’s comeback unravels a movie-inspired murder

By Sagaya Fernando | April 23, 2025 |

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Gandasi, Hassan District, Karnataka, India-

What began as a tragic accident on a rural highway in southern India has now evolved into one of the most mind-bending murder plots in recent memory—a real-life crime straight out of a film script. Set in the quiet village limits of Gandasi in Karnataka’s Hassan district, this story involves a dead man who wasn’t dead, a staged accident, a murder-for-insurance conspiracy, and an unexpected twist that brought the scheme crumbling down.

Chapter One: The Widow's Tale

On August 13, 2024, 39-year-old Shilparani walked into the Gandasi Police Station, visibly distressed. Her husband, Muniswamy Gowda, a 49-year-old agriculturist and tyre shop owner, had reportedly been struck and killed by a lorry while attempting to change a flat tyre on the roadside near Arasikere. Accompanied by the family’s driver, Somesh, she claimed they were returning from visiting their daughter in Mangaluru when tragedy struck.

According to her account, Gowda had stepped behind the car to retrieve a spare tyre when the speeding truck hit him. She identified the body, insisted on a swift cremation, and even requested that the face of the deceased remain heavily bandaged—an unusual but, at the time, unchallenged request.

The investigation began routinely. Officers searched for the lorry and eventually tracked down the driver, Devendra Nayaka, who was arrested. But beneath the surface, something didn’t sit right.

Chapter Two: Questions From the Ashes

For several days, the police, moved by the widow’s apparent grief, chose not to probe too deeply. But cracks soon began to show. When Shilparani filed an insurance claim amounting to ₹3–4 crore (approximately USD 360,000–480,000), suspicions reignited.

Then came the clincher: the post-mortem report. The so-called accident victim had not died from impact injuries. Instead, he had been strangled to death—his broken body crushed by a lorry only after life had already left him.

The pieces no longer fit.

Chapter Three: The Ghost in the Police Station

The mystery reached a surreal crescendo when a man presumed dead—none other than Muniswamy Gowda himself—walked into the Sidlaghatta Police Station in Chikkaballapura, more than 230 kilometers away.

The officer he approached, Inspector Srinivas, was more than a cop—he was family, a distant relative. Gowda, assuming kinship would equate to complicity, sought help in collecting the insurance claim. What he received instead was a cold stare and a pair of handcuffs.

Srinivas immediately informed the Gandasi police. Within hours, Gowda was arrested and interrogated. The truth began to spill out—layer by calculated layer.

Chapter Four: The Silver Screen Blueprint

Faced with spiraling debts and financial ruin, Gowda had looked to an unlikely source for salvation: cinema. Specifically, the 2007 Tamil blockbuster Sivaji: The Boss, in which Rajinikanth’s character fakes his death with a lookalike to escape his troubles.

Gowda decided to replicate the plot, not on screen, but in real life.

According to the police, he spent months searching for a body double—someone whose physical appearance could pass for his own. He eventually found an unidentified ragpicker and lured him with food, money, and false kindness. For nearly two months, the man stayed with Gowda, unknowingly living on borrowed time.

In early August, Gowda orchestrated the rest. He purchased a new lorry and paid driver Nayaka ₹5 lakh (USD 6,000) to participate in the scheme. On August 12, the ragpicker was murdered—strangled by Gowda himself—and his body was later placed in the ‘accident scene’ and run over to simulate a fatal hit-and-run.

Shilparani and driver Somesh played their parts flawlessly, reporting the death, grieving publicly, and initiating the paperwork for the insurance claim.

Chapter Five: The Trial and the Tragedy

The plan might have succeeded—if the dead man had stayed dead.

All key players—Gowda, Shilparani, Somesh, and driver Nayaka—were arrested. A comprehensive charge sheet was filed, and the case is now under trial. All four are currently out on bail.

But the story has one unresolved element: the victim. The murdered ragpicker remains unidentified. Despite widespread efforts, police have been unable to trace his origins or contact any family. His name, like his life, remains buried in mystery.

Curtain Call

In the end, the elaborate deception collapsed not due to police pressure, but because the central actor in the plot walked into a police station, believing his script was airtight. Inspired by fiction, this real-life drama became a haunting reminder that no story—no matter how cinematic—is above the law.

The case of the “Deadman Walking” is a masterclass in flawed ambition, borrowed brilliance, and the inescapable truth that even the most carefully staged lies eventually come to light.