The Hindu : Karnataka News : A reward for sustained pressure, hard work

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 21, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

A reward for sustained pressure, hard work

By K. Jeevan Chinnappa

MADIKERI, OCT. 20. Among the many police personnel who had fallen to Veerappan's bullets in the past in the jungles are a few from Kodagu as well. Besides, a case of elephant poaching and killing of a forest watcher in 1983 was registered against Veerappan's gang in Ponnampet in Kodagu, which later fell because of want of corroborative evidence against Madayyan, Veerappan's brother, and Kolandepayyan, the brigand's accomplice.

K.M. Prithvi, a forest watcher, and another personnel had ventured into the Mavukal reserve forests in the Devamachi-Arekere range of the Nagarahole National Park, near Thithimathi in Kodagu on August 27 that year. They were aghast to see five dead elephants, whose tusks had been taken away. But as fate would have it, Prithvi was shot dead by the poacher's gang while the other fled to narrate the harrowing experience and lodge a complaint at the Ponnampet police station. The then Sub-Inspector, M.C. Aiyappa, had registered a criminal case (No. 63/83).

The Veerappan connection was established only in 1986 when the Satyamangalam police in Tamil Nadu brought Madayyan and Kolandepayyan to Ponnampet for inquiry on May 25, 1986, sources told The Hindu. This was narrated by Ravi, brother of Prithvi, who has since secured a job in the Forest Department on compassionate grounds.

Speaking to presspersons on an earlier occasion, Ravi had said that Madayyan had admitted to killing elephants and a forest staff in a shootout in the Mavukal reserve forests.

The sources pointed out that Madayyan had revealed Veerappan's involvement in it before a Virajpet court on October 6, 1989. Later, chargesheets were filed against them (CC 2851/89), but they did not contain Veerappan's name. The case was dismissed in 1994 in a Madikeri court for want of evidence.

Overwhelmed

B.A. Muddavva, mother of Balekuttira Sundara, a Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) constable, who fell to the bullets of the brigand on August 15, 12 years ago, was overwhelmed with emotion and grief. The memory of her son still haunts the family, she said.

Susheela, one of Sundara's sisters, says Veerappan should have been caught alive, as it would have revealed more. Still, the news of his death was gratifying to the family, she said. The hard work by the police had paid off at last, she added.

Sundara and two other KSRP constables (all from Kodagu) had fallen victims to Veerappan and his gang in the jungles, along with Harikrishna, Superintendent of Police, and Shakeel Ahmad, Sub-Inspector, Susheela recalls. Sundara was a bachelor.

Bullet hits

Chandrappa, who is now the Circle Inspector of Police, Madikeri town, recalls his experience with the gang. "Veerappan's gang had taken cover behind the rocks in the jungles when we were ambushed near Hogenakal at 6.15 p.m. on April 9, 1990,'' he said. He was one among the five sub-inspectors and a constable who were attacked. In that incident, three sub-inspectors, Jagannath, Ramalingu and Dinesh, and Shankara Rao, a constable, died, Chandrappa said.

Veerappan's gang fled in the wake of retaliation by the police party, but Chandrappa had taken several bullet hits in his abdomen, right rib and arms, he recalled.

He and another sub-inspector, Arasu, who is now a Circle Inspector, had to remove the bodies of their colleagues and reach Dharmapuri, where he was operated upon the same day. After two days, he was shifted to St. John's Hospital in Bangalore.

``It is a reward for the sustained pressure and hard work by the police,'' Mr. Chandrappa said. "I still carry some lead pellets in my body,'' he said.

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