Beast of Bangalore: Netflix documentary about cop-turned-serial killer Umesh Reddy

In the late 90s, Bengaluru was rocked by a spate of gruesome violence against women, primarily housewives and young girls too, in broad daylight when the men of the house were out on work. The modus operandi of the criminal was rape and murder, disguised as robbery gone wrong, as the perpetrator would also remove their jewellery.

The culprit, Umesh Reddy, a District Armed Reserve Police Officer in Chitradurga, was first caught by the cops and dismissed from service after one of his early victims who escaped his clutches, identified him at a Republic Day police parade. However, he repeatedly escaped police custody over the course of six years, and committed multiple rapes and murders. Before he joined the District Armed Reserve Police, Umesh was with the Central Reserve Police Force in Jammu and Kashmir. He fled to Chitradurga after attempting to rape the daughter of the commandant. The District Armed Reserve Police’s failure to check his personal history thoroughly eventually led to his six-year reign of terror.

Reddy also had a twisted fetish for women’s lingerie, which he would not only steal from his victims but from other women too, if he found it being aired to dry. Each time the police caught him, he was sporting bra and a panty under his clothes.

In 2002, Reddy was tried and convicted in 9 out of over 20 alleged crimes and sentenced to death, which was then upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court too. Reddy, who is still on death row, has had multiple cinematic representations of his life of crime. And now, the latest is the fourth instalment in Netflix’s Indian Predator true crime documentary franchise. Called Beast of Bangalore, the limited series will drop on the platform on December 16.