Veerappan

K. PAVAN KUMAR

VEERAPPAN

THE FOREST BRIGAND

Koose Muniswamy Veerappan more commonly known as Veerappan was an Indian
bandit (dacoit) who was ac ve for 36 years, kidnapping major poli cians for ransom. He
was charged with sandalwood smuggling in the scrub lands and forests in the states of
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. (born January 18, 1952, Gopinatham, Mysore [now
Karnataka], India—died October 18, 2004, near Papparappa , Tamil Nadu), He married
Muthulakshmi, who reportedly married him because of his "notoriety and moustache"

In 1990. As of 2004, his two daughters, Vidya
Rani (born in 1990) and Prabha (born in 1993), were
studying in Tamil Nadu. Indian bandit, poacher, and
smuggler who carried out his ac vi es in the forests of
the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, and
Tamil Nadu. Wanted for the murders of more than 120

people, the poaching of over 2,000 elephants,
and the smuggling of millions of dollars of
sandalwood and ivory, he gained notoriety
throughout India and evaded arrest for nearly 20
years.

Veerappan started as an assistant to his rela ve Saalvai Gounder, a notorious
poacher and sandalwood smuggler. His father and rela ves, whose village lay in the
forest area, were also known to be poachers and smugglers. Veerappan began his career
in crime in 1969 and was first arrested in 1972.

Veerappan ini ally developed as a sandalwood and ivory smuggler, killing
elephants for the la er. He later started killing those who resisted his ac vi es. He
commi ed his first murder at the age of 17 and his vic ms tended to be police officers,
forest officials, and informants.

In 1987, Veerappan kidnapped and murdered a Sathyamangalam District
forest officer named Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu. This first brought him to the Indian
Government's a en on. Among his most infamous killings are a senior IFS officer named
Pandillapalli Srinivas in November 1991, and an ambush of a police party including a
senior IPS officer, Harikrishna, among others, in August 1992. Veerappan was not averse
to killing civilians, and killed a man from his na ve village for having once travelled in a
police jeep.[15] He regularly killed anyone suspected of being a police informer. Because
of poli cal instability, Veerappan could easily escape from one state to another. State
jurisdic on problems also prevented police officers from entering other states to
apprehend Veerappan.

Palar Blast

In Govindapadi, Me ur, Veerappan killed a Bandari person whom he
suspected of being a police informer. As a result, a 41-member team of police officers
and forestry officials were called in to inves gate. On 9 April 1993, landmines were
detonated underneath the two vehicles in which the team was traveling. The blast
occurred at Palar, near Malai Mahadeswara Hills (present-day Chamarajanagar District,
Karnataka) and killed 22 members of the team. Known as the Palar blast, this was
Veerappan's single largest mass killing.

Special Task Force

In 1992, the Karnataka and the Tamil
Nadu Governments formed a Special Task Force to catch
Veerappan.[14] It was headed in Tamil Nadu by Sanjay
Arora and in Karnataka by Shankar Bidri with Walter
Devaram as the joint chief. In February 1992, his
lieutenant Gurunathan was killed by the Karnataka task
force, with SI Shakeel Ahmed single-handedly responsible for the capture. Three months

later, Veerappan a acked the Ramapura police sta on in the Chamarajanagar district in
Karnataka, killing several policemen and capturing arms and ammuni on. In August
1992, Veerappan laid a trap for SI Shakeel Ahmed, killing him along with five others. The
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Special Task Forces then began intensified combing
opera ons along the two states' border areas and also around Gopinatham village,
Veerappan's birthplace. Through these opera ons, under charge of Sanjay Arora and
Shankar Bidari, the gang was reduced to 5 members. Mee ngs with Gopinatham
villagers were held, and the 5-crore bounty was announced. In 1993, the task force
arrested Veerappan's wife, Muthulakshmi, and charged her with aiding, but she was
acqui ed of all charges.

Kidnap of Rajkumar

On 30 July 2000, Veerappan abducted actor Rajkumar and three
others from Dodda Gajanur, a village in Sathyamangalam taluk Erode district near the
Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border where the film star was a ending his housewarming
ceremony. Public outcry and violence ensued in Bangalore as well as other parts of
Karnataka. A bandh, or strike, also occurred on 22 September in Bangalore. Karnataka's
Chief Minister and police personnel sought the help of Tamil Nadu Government and
visited Chennai seeking help. Nego a ons were conducted and R. Gopal, an editor of the
Tamil magazine Nakkeeran, was involved in several rounds of talks with Veerappan.
Gopal had earlier visited Veerappan for similar nego a ons, and visited the forest
several mes for videotaped discussions. Veerappan demanded jus ce for Tamil Nadu in
the Cauvery Water dispute, as well as making Tamil the second official language of
Karnataka and the release of certain Tamil extremists jailed in Tamil Nadu. Rajkumar was
held for 108 days and finally released without harm in November 2000. A police official
later suggested that 20 crore rupees had been paid by Karnataka government for his

Kidnap of Nagappa

On 25 August 2002, Veerappan abducted H. Nagappa, a former
minister of Karnataka, from his village house in Chamarajanagar district. Nagappa had
been a minister for Agricultural Marke ng from 1996 to 1999. The Joint Special task
forces of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu worked with the Kerala police to help release
Nagappa. An encounter to release him failed, and Nagappa was found dead three
months later in a Karnataka forest. The reward offered by the Karnataka state
government was then increased to 15 crore rupees.

For several years during the 1990s, Veerappan kidnapped police officials and
other personali es and demanded ransom money. It is believed that ransoms were o en
unofficially paid. In July 1997, he kidnapped nine forest officials in the Burude forests in
Chamarajanagar district. In that case, the hostages were released unharmed a few years
later even though his ransom demand was not met. It is also believed that Veerappan
buried large amounts of money in various parts of the forest; in 2002 police recovered
3.3 million rupees from his gang members.

Political support

Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi of Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was a known sympathiser of Veerappan and his aides, and
demanded the removal of the death penalty for four of Veerappan's aides as soon the
sentence was given to them in 2013.[33] Karunanidhi also extended 31 October 1997

Veerappan's surrender and postponed Special Task Force (STF) police ac on by few days
saying, "it is not far too late for Veerappan to surrender". Banned organisa ons like the
Tamil Na onal Retrieval Troops (TNRT) and Tamil Nadu Libera on Army helped
Veerappan to secure a Robin Hood image and to dra terms of nego a ons when he
kidnapped prominent people. Kolathur Mani, president of Dravidar Viduthalai
Kazhagam, formerly the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) party, was arrested and
brought to trial as an accomplice in several of Veerappan's crimes, although later
acqui ed due to lack of evidence.

Death:

On 18 October 2004, Veerappan and two of
his associates were killed by the Tamil Nadu
Special Task Force. and N. K. Senthamarai Kannan
under the proac ve leadership of K Vijayakumar.
The killing happened near the village of
Papparapa in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu.
Veerappan and his men were lured into an
ambulance by an undercover policeman under the
pretext of taking them to Dharmapuri for medical treatment. The Tamil Nadu Special Task
Force, which had been observing his movements for several months, surrounded the
ambulance, and the gangsters were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

The en re opera on was named Opera on Cocoon and Veerappan's associates
Sethukuli Govindan, Chandre Gowdar and Sethumani were also killed in the opera on.

His death was described as the "death of a demon" by The Guardian. The
villagers of Gopinatham celebrated with firecrackers on hearing the news.

Several human rights ac vists, who rallied under the banner of the Centre
for Protec on of Civil Liber es (CPCL), claimed that circumstan al evidence indicated
that Veerappan was murdered by police a er being tortured. Since Veerappan's death,
Gopinatham has been promoted as a des na on for ecotourism by the Karnataka State
Department of Forest and Tourism. Veerappan was buried at Moolakkadu near Me ur in
Tamil Nadu, as his family members were more a ached to it and most of his rela ves in
Gopinatham had le . The police had planned a crema on but decided on a burial a er
objec ons from Veerappan's rela ves. Thousands of people turned out for the burial,
while others were kept away by heavy security.

THE FOREST BRIGAND

DESIGNED BY K.PAVAN KUMAR