Bandit Veerappan today asked the Karnataka government to send Tamil activist Kolathur Mani as an emissary to negotiate the release of H. Nagappa. The demand was made through audio cassettes sent to Chief Minister S.M. Krishna’s office and the family of the hostage. Officials said the contents of both the tapes were more-or-less the same. Veerappan, in his Tamil message, has demanded that police be withdrawn from the forests and Mani be sent immediately so that he could send the government his demands. Karnataka’s Security Advisor T. Srinivasulu is expected to meet Mani, who is lodged in Bellary jail for alleged links with the bandit, on Friday and discuss the cassette. The five-minute tape, officials said, had been played for Krishna but there were doubts if it was Veerappan’s voice. Veerappan’s Tamil, they said, sounded very fluent and the cassette had disruptions. Nagappa’s message in Kannada appeared authentic. The former state minister is believed to have conveyed that he is in good health but has not been getting good food. He has urged the government to stop the STF operation. The tape has been sent for forensic examination. Meanwhile, Veerappan associate Murugeshan, who was allegedly involved in Rajkumar’s abduction, surrendered before a court in Tamil Nadu.
