Be it with good moral ethics or disreputable one, some people succeed to retain their grip on the memories of the public. The Veerappan terror stories is one among such — where two States Karnataka and Tamil Nadu spent more than 3 decade and a half trying to catch a murderer, poacher and forest brigand.
Veerappan was a notorious bandit who poached and smuggled red sandalwood from all across the southern states. States within his illicit control included Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. He was accused of murdering more than 120 people.
His exploits also include poaching of over 2,000 elephants’ tusks which estimated to the tunes of several hundred million dollars. Even after these grave crimes, he evaded Justice for nearly two decades and became synonym with terror in southern part of India.
Early Life of Veerappan
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan popularly known as Veerappan was born on 18th of January, 1952 in Gopinatham, Mysore (now Karnataka). He was born into a poor family of cattle grazers. As a kid he grew up admiring the poaching skills especially of notorious bandits like Sevia Gounder and Malayur Mammattiyan. It is claimed that he made his entry into criminal life at a relatively early age. He poached his first elephant at age 10 and committed his first murder at 17.
He joined a gang of poachers when he attained the age of 18. After that he expanded his operations. The gang then started committing organised crimes including smuggling, poaching, murder, and abduction. He was a cynical dreaded bandit who was ruthless and killed any innocent whom he suspected to be informers of authorities.
Most of his victims were police, forest officials, and locals suspected to be informers about his illegal activities to the authorities.
The gang was active mainly in Hosur, Dharmapuri, Erode and Satyamangalam divisions of Tamil Nadu and in Kollegal, Chamarajanagar, Bandipur, Hunsur and Madikeri divisions of Karnataka. The gang had a clear-cut modus operandi. It would camp near any water stream for as many as 3-4 days and wait for elephant herds to quench their thirst. Then, they would brutally kill the elephants.
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Palar Blast
On 9th of April 1993, Veerapan and his band attacked the Palar landmine in Karnataka. The attack, organized by the forest brigand Veerappan, killed 22 people, making it one of the deadliest explosive attacks in Karnataka’s history.
In Govindapadi, Mettur, Veerappan had killed a guy Bandari whom he suspected of being a police informer. As a result, a 41-member team comprising of Police officers and Forestry officials was called in to investigate the murder case. On the fateful day of 9th April, the bandit gang detonated several landmines underneath the two vehicles in which the investigating team was traveling.
The blast occurred at Palar, near Malai Mahadeswara Hills (present-day Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka). This infamous landmine blast is known as the Palar blast. It is considered to be one of the deadliest mass killing of Veerappan and his gang.
Kidnapping Dr. Rajkumar
Gajanur, the hometown of acclaimed Kannada film star Dr. Rajkumar, fall within the fringes of the thick MM Hills forests on the Tamil Nadu side of the border with Karnataka. He had gone there to attend a house warming ceremony of his new bungalow. That time, Veerapan’s gang was continuously carrying out spree of violence. on a Sunday night of 30th July, 2000, he and his band of dacoits kidnapped Dr Rajkumar.
It led to a wide spread agitation and people came on roads demanding the immediate and safe return of their beloved star Dr Rajkumar from the clutches of Veerapan’s gang. The agitation escalated and the state government was struggling to maintain law and order situation in the state.
Under massive public pressure, the government paid bounty and managed to bring back Dr Rajkumar safely. That kidnapping saga continued for as many as 108 days and it created a terror of the bandit group.
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Encounter story of Veerappan
On 18th of October 2004, Veerappan and three others bandits were killed by the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Special Task Force (TNSTF) and N. K. Senthamarai Kannan was the key cop in the operation under the proactive leadership of K Vijayakumar.
The encounter took place near the outskirts of Papparapatti village in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. The dreaded bandit Veerappan and his men were lured into an ambulance by an undercover policeman. The disguised cop had used the pretext of medical assistance to Veerapan and his dacoits.
The TNSTF and Karnataka police were following his tracks for months, they gheraoed the ambulance and these gangsters were killed in the ensuing gunfight. The entire operation was named Operation Cocoon.
His death was described as the “death of a demon” within the locals of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
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