Indian states to relaunch manhunt for jungle bandit

November 21, 2000
Web posted at: 10:14 AM HKT (0214 GMT)

BANGALORE, India (Reuters) -- The southern Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu said on Monday they would resume the hunt for a dreaded jungle bandit who created a crisis for the two states by abducting a leading film star.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi said in Madras the state would work with neighboring Karnataka in the search for India's most wanted outlaw, Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, the Press Trust of India reported.

In Karnataka's capital, Bangalore, Chief Minister S.M. Krishna said that he would discuss strategies to "eradicate Veerappan's menace" and announce it in the state legislature on Tuesday.

Veerappan, who operates in the common dense tropical jungles of the two states, abducted Rajkumar (one name), a cult screen hero in Karnataka, from a remote farmhouse on July 30 and held him captive for 108 days.

Rajkumar was set free last week after India's Supreme Court blocked plans by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to free 51 of the bandit's comrades as ransom. He said he had to dramatize his ill- health to convince his captor to end his forest ordeal.

The two states had suspended their search for Veerappan after the kidnapping to prevent any harm to the actor.

Veerappan and his gang have terrorized police and forest authorities for nearly two decades.

The camouflage-clad, mustachioed bandit is accused of killing nearly 120 people and the slaughter of 2,000 elephants for their tusks.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu set up a 200-strong special police force in 1989 to conduct the manhunt which is estimated to have cost over 100 million rupees ($2.1 million).

Karnataka authorities said the state's special police force had moved back into their 17 base camps in the jungle region from where they had withdrawn after the abduction.

Senior police officers say the fugitive has continued to roam free due to the complacency of politicians and poor co-ordination between the police forces of the two states.

Others say the special police force has difficulty getting recruits because of difficult and dangerous conditions and that the desertion rate is high.

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