Madras, India — India's most wanted bandit, accused of murdering police officers, slaughtering elephants and kidnapping a movie star, was killed Monday in a jungle shootout with police after more than three decades on the run, authorities said.
Koose Veerappan, 60, was shot to death in a gunbattle with a special police paramilitary task force just before midnight, said K. Senthamaraikannan, police superintendent for the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
“Veerappan and three other associates were killed,” he said. “We have recovered the bodies.”
He said police had received a tip that Veerappan, who had a $515,000 Cdn bounty on his head, was hiding near the village of Paparapatti, 320 kilometres southwest of Madras, the state capital.
A police intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an associate of Veerappan had surrendered about three hours before the gunbattle and led the police team to the hideout.
With his trademark handlebar mustache, lanky frame and camouflage clothes, the flamboyant outlaw had enjoyed a level of celebrity comparable to the idols of India's movie industry.
Veerappan had escaped brief capture twice. Poor peasants, in awe of his daring and dependent on his handouts, had helped him cover his tracks.
Some politicians also were alleged to be in his pay, and police said Veerappan used terror tactics to stay on the run — allegedly stringing up the bodies of suspected police informants from trees.
Veerappan — whose assumed name translates as “brave” — had been on the run since the late 1960s, when he fell in with ivory smugglers. His turf was dense jungle terrain straddling more than 10,000 square kilometres in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He was accused of smuggling ivory from 2,000 slaughtered elephants.
Vijay Kumar, a superintendent of the Special Task Force, said the team twice offered Veerappan and his handful of comrades a chance to surrender. “The response was not appropriate,” Kumar told NDTV television news. “We threw stun grenades and opened fire.” He said one of the four men with Veerappan escaped.
Efforts to capture Veerappan were stepped up after his gang in August 2000 swooped into the country home of one of southern India's most popular actors, known as Rajkumar, seizing the then-71-year-old matinee idol and holding him captive in the jungle. Fans rioted at the news of the kidnapping and Rajkumar was set free after three months under circumstances that were not fully explained. The government denied paying a ransom but officials said money had been paid to Veerappan to secure Rajkumar's release.
The gang also later kidnapped a politician, who was killed.
Since 1990, state governments had spent nearly $38-million hunting for Veerappan. Armed with assault rifles and machine-guns, police had used night-vision goggles, a global positioning system and helicopters to scour the jungle region.
A lesson for Mr George Bush ofthe USA
" To kill Saddam Hussain or Osama Bin Laden , the whole nation of IRAQ anfd Afghansitan should not have been sluaghtered . Learn from our state governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu who finaly got rid of Verrrapan in such a peaceful way. Kudos tothe hero who shot him ."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment