For five men in Palakkad, a pleasure trip to Kodaikanal has turned into a desperate search for their missing friend. Vishnu M, a 32-year-old painter from Thachampara in Palakkad, went missing during a trip to Kodaikanal more than a month ago. 

He disappeared in the early hours of June 30 while staying at a homestay in Poondi with five friends. According to his friends, the group had consumed alcohol the previous night. They said they saw Vishnu get up around 3 am and assumed he was going to use the restroom.

"When we woke up in the morning, his belongings were also missing, so we thought he had left for home. But when we couldn't reach him, we panicked and started searching for him in the nearby areas. We then went to the police station and registered a case," said Sanal, one of Vishnu's friends.

What ensued was a 10-day search by the group across the region. They went around showing Vishnu's photograph to passersby, shopkeepers and others in an attempt to trace him.

"We learnt that he had boarded a 5 am bus to Mannur, bought alcohol from a nearby TASMAC outlet, befriended two Malayali youths and had food at a nearby hotel. When we asked for the CCTV footage from the hotel, an employee told us that the owner was out of station and would return later," Sanal told Onmanorama. They need to access the CCTV visuals to confirm whether it was indeed Vishnu. He added that the police also sought CCTV footage from the bus stand, but the cameras were reportedly not functioning.

During their search, Vishnu's friends also found that he had later returned to Poondi and booked another accommodation to stay. "We learnt this only after retracing his route. We also noticed activity on his Threads account until July 17 despite his phone being switched off. People who claimed to have seen him in Mannur also said he was using a different model of phone from the one we knew, so we assume he may have changed it," Sanal said.

A missing person case has been registered at the Kodaikanal Police Station, and the station's Sub-Inspector is probing the matter, Sanal said.

According to his family, the last time Vishnu spoke to them was around 11.30 pm on June 29. His mother, Kunjamma, told Onmanorama that he had called to ask how she was doing and whether she had eaten before ending the conversation.

Kunjamma said she has made repeated trips to Tamil Nadu in search of her son. Along with Vishnu's brother Sinoj, who is a heart patient, and two of their cousins, she travelled to Kodaikanal last Sunday and returned early Saturday morning. It was their second visit to the hill station since Vishnu went missing.

"We travelled by bus, getting down at different stops and searching for him. In the last five days alone, I have travelled through multiple places, including Palani, Dindigul and Batlagundu, looking for my son. We showed his photograph to restaurant owners, autorickshaw drivers and anyone who might have seen him," she said.

Kunjamma said the family has also filed complaints with the Dindigul, Kodaikanal and Palani police seeking assistance in the search. She alleged that the police response had been uncooperative. "They make us wait from 10 am to 4 pm even to give us the receipt of the FIR, without saying anything. They keep assuring us that he will be found, but we have no leads so far," she said.

"When we, along with a police officer, went to the hotel where my son had eaten and asked the owner to check the CCTV footage, he initially agreed but kept changing the time. Later, he asked us to come back after two days. It was not possible for me to stay there any longer," she said.

Kunjamma said the prolonged search has pushed the family into financial distress. "I had to take a loan to continue searching for my son and to meet the accommodation and food expenses for everyone. I work under MGNREGA and Vishnu was the sole breadwinner of our family. I can no longer afford to continue the search. I have tried every possible option. I wish I could just find my son," she said. Kunjamma added there were no family issues and that Vishnu had been happy and excited about the trip.

Residents of Thachampara have since formed an action council to coordinate efforts to trace Vishnu. Nizamuddin, vice chairman of the action council, told Onmanorama that repeated searches had yielded no results. "We submitted a petition to Minister K A Thulasi and also contacted MP V K Sreekandan, who spoke to the police during the initial days when the search was more proactive. But nothing has come out of it so far," he said.