Distraught fans break down, bring parts of Bangalore to halt

Family members and close friends were seen coming in and out of gates in their cars, trying to push through the crowd, while the sons were reported to be flying to Chennai. `He was taken from his Gajanur farmhouse,” said a police officer outside the residence, scotching wild rumours that Veerappan had audaciously come to Sadashivnagar and whisked away the actor.

Pockets of people were gathering outside their homes in the area and whispering while anti-S.M. Krishna slogans were being raised outside Rajkumar’s home by the Fans’ Association members who were arriving by late morning by the truckload. Even handicapped people and what looked like male models were converging on the area, in the peculiar way of India when a universally felt tragedy strikes and all normal barriers of caste, class and creed are down.

“Mrs Rajkumar has got a tape,” said a mediaperson. That and more were doing the rounds when many phones in Sadashivnagar went dead for 30 minutes. “That’s what they did when Thackeray was in trouble,” said a resident, “No one wants wild stories being spread from house to house.” It wasn’t only phones in Sadashivnagar but those in Malleshwaram, a Rajkumar fans’ stronghold, also went on the blink.

In Jayanagar, tyres were being burnt and scores of young men were seen holding up pictures of their idol and stopping vehicles. Schools from Bishop Cottons on St Mark’s Road and Purna Prajna in Sadashivnagar were the first to close, others followed throughout the morning. By 10.30 am, the roads leading from Sadashivnagar to the main junctions of M.G. Road and Cunningham Road were making the city look like a ghost town, without a policeman in sight, although other, more distant areas, were jampacked with people returning home and school buses doing overtime.

“Veerappan has signed his death warrant,” said a distraught Sadashivnagar resident. Those who heard him seemed to think it was much overdue.