KM Veerappan

KM Veerappan ( Koose Muniswamy Veerappan ; Tamil : வீரப்பன், vīrappaṉ; born January 18, 1952 in the village of Gopinatham in Tamil Nadu ; † October 18, 2004 ibid) was the head of a gang set up by the Indian authorities for kidnappings , the murder of 120 People (including 44 police officers) were blamed for the killing of over 2,000 elephants and the smuggling of ivory and sandalwood .

Through his cunning approach and skillful moves, he was able to gain great popularity despite his bloody business and build up the image of a ' Robin Hood ', who uses the proceeds from his criminal actions to help the poor people of the region. It is questionable whether the support from the population alone enabled him to evade state power for decades. It is believed that through corruption he controlled a number of high-ranking politicians, government officials and police officers in all three surrounding states. The forests in the mountainous border area of ​​the southern Indian states of Karnataka , Kerala and Tamil Nadu ( Nilgiris ) are in fact one of the last inaccessible regions in India.

His biggest coup was the three-month kidnapping of the South Indian film star Rajkumar from July 30 to November 15, 2000 . At this point it was quiet around him. His last known murder was in 1993 , the last confrontation with state power in 1996 . The kidnapping brought him back to the front pages of Indian newspapers . For weeks he was able to hide with his hostage from the search parties of the Indian police, who even used helicopters . His demands, which were for the most part political, were mostly only granted through promises.

Apparently in response to the unfulfilled promises, Veerappan kidnapped the politician H. Nagappa from Karnataka on August 25, 2002 . After another three months of kidnapping, Nagappa was found dead on December 8, 2002 . Veerappan's demands - he had allegedly demanded an amnesty for himself should he surrender - had not been met.

Since then it had become quiet around him. Allegedly trying to avoid arrest, he was killed in an exchange of fire with police on October 18, 2004 . In the exchange of fire, which took place between 10.15 and 10.45 p.m. local time, three of his gang members also died.

Sections of the population believe that Veerappan was getting too old to meet all of his obligations to his gang and the bribed politicians. His death in the "unsuccessful arrest" prevented an avalanche of corruption investigations against high-ranking politicians, which would very likely have been triggered if the arrest had been successful.

Web links

• http://www.suedasien.net/news/2002/august/veerappan.htm
• http://us.rediff.com/news/nag_aug02.htm
• http://us.rediff.com/news/rajakid.htm