Veerappan has the last laugh

Speaking in Chennai, he warned against any operations to nab Veerappan till the Justice Sadashiva Commission completed its inquiry into the “atrocities” committed by the STF and compensation is paid to the victims. “If the STF starts its operations immediately, it will affect the harmonious situation that now prevails after Rajkumar’s release,” he said, accompanied by the other two emissaries, Prof P Kalyani and G Sukumaran.

Nedumaran, who said that Defence Minister George Fernandes had asked him to continue neogitiations, added that the actor was set free after the emissaries assured Veerappan that they would ensure the release of 51 TADA prisoners in Karnataka and seven Tamil extremists in Tamil Nadu through a legal battle.

When contacted, Krishna who came back to Delhi yesterday evening to take part in a conclave of Congress chief ministers, was dismissive: “Where do I start operations? Where is Veerappan?” The obvious implication is that the outlaw is not in Karnataka territory but across it in Tamil Nadu.

But Chief Minister M Karunanidhi is busy gloating over Nedumaran’s role in ending the crisis whereas the first thing that Krishna did after receiving Rajkumar in Bangalore was to rush to Delhi on Wednesday evening to join in the celebrations of his leader Sonia Gandhi’s victory in the Congress presidential elections.

As for the Karnataka government, all it has done so far is to instruct the Special Task Force to regroup, start patrolling, gather intelligence and go back to the checkposts around the territory in which the bandit operates.

But this is of little significance if there is no co-ordination with Tamil Nadu’s STF, especially since Veerappan is believed to be on the Tamil Nadu side of the Sathyamangalam forests.

Krishna said that he was going to Chennai tomorrow but not with the specific purpose of meeting Karunanidhi but to see Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran in hospital. “I may talk to Karunanidhi if he is there,” he said.

The Karnataka chief minister reiterated that Rajkumar’s release was as much of a mystery as his abduction. But he doesn’t think it is necessary that thismystery gets resolved: he is happy that the objective of getting Rajkumar released has been achieved. “I’m not going into a post-mortem about who was responsible for the release and how they achieved it. I have no time for it,” he remarked.

Asked if the resolution of the mystery was not important in the light of allegations that there had been a deal between Veerappan and the two governments including the payment of a hefty ransom, all that Krishna said was: “We’ll verify it.”

Interestingly, immediately after the hostage drama ended, “Radio” Venkatesan, whose release from prison was among Veerappan’s demands, said that the details of the deal would come to be known in a few days.

ENS adds from Chennai: Nedumaran was full of praise for Veerappan and reiterated that the brigand should be granted amnesty. “He had given all possible comforts available in the forest to the actor. He never tortured his hostages,” he said.

Asked whether there was any guarantee from Veerappan that there would not be any more kidnappings in the future, Nedumaran said the creation of Veerappan had it genesis in poor socio-economic situations. “So long as those conditions prevail, one cannot prevent the emergence of more Veerappans.”

Dismissing reports that the LTTE played a role in Rajkumar’s release, he said Kolathur Mani (who is a well-known LTTE sympathiser) had accompanied the emissaries in his capacity as a public figure, “who has earned the respect of the people by taking up the cause of the STF victims in the past”.

When asked whether the release of Rajkumar would encourage Tamil nationalist extremism in the State, he said it would give a boost to the human rights organisations in the country.