STF rescues hostages from Veerappan

Following the kidnapping incident, the Timbam area was cordoned off by the STF. After more than a week’s joint operation to rescue the hostages, an STF team, under the command of IG K Kalimuthu and led by DIG Harshavarthana Raju and SP Tamilselvan, assisted by SPs of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Ashok Kumar Doss and Ravindra Prasad respectively rescued the three hostages at around 2.00 pm on Friday from thethick jungles in between Sathiyamangalam and TN Palayam, according to DGP F C Sharma.

The STF, comprising more than 1,000 personnel, were split into various groups and moved in disguise in places namely Puliankombu, Sathiyamangalam, Bargur, Andhiyur, Kudiraimedu from the very next day after the kidnapping incident.

Sources said the STF team spotted a boy coming out from the forest area between Sathyamangalam and TN Palayam on Thursday. On specific information, the STF team moved in the Kudiraimedu area on Friday morning to locate the gang members, led by Sethukuzhi Govindan, who were guarding the hostages.

There was an exchange of fire between STF personnel and the gang members and after sometime the gang fled the scene leaving behind the hostages.

Veerappan, in an audio cassette sent to Nakkeeran (a Tamil bi-weekly magazine) had threatened to kill the hostages if the Nettrikan Tamil magazine editor A S Mani did not pay the ransom of Rs eight lakh.