Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Veeru

Veerappan is dead. The forty years of terror is over. The 6000 sq.km. woods of Satyamanglam will never be same again.

STF finally succeeds after 14 years. Crores have been spent for the job. But there have been reasons for the delay. The political will being one. He was an advocate of Tamil cause. His ransoms, apart from money included installing of Tamil leaders' statues in Banglore, and release of journalists, politicians from the jails.

The another reason was the money. The crores which were sanctioned for his tracking used to be gobbled up by the corrupt police officials. If he was captured or killed, that money won't come. But the biggest reason was his Robinhood persona. He was very popular with the locals. That made the tracking very difficult.

Started with the smuggling of sandalwood and poaching, he migrated to kidnapping. Apart from Nagappa, none were killed. Many escaped, others were let off after negotiations. Rajkumar was freed after 108 days with 20 crores of ransom in his kitty.

But he was no saint. He had some 120 odd murders to his name, mostly police and forest officials or informers. Some were beheaded, others were shot. There are some exotic tales about him. That he drinks goat blood, or ate elephant flesh. He killed 6000 of them for poaching.

But he is dead now. The woods won't be same again - for good.
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