Veerappan now eyes assembly seat, wants to write autobiography

Veerappan also said he wanted to write an autobiography and contest in any one of the Assembly segments in Sathy or Andhiyur as an independent. If these demands were not fulfilled, Veerappan had said that he would rather continue his activities in the forests.

Natryan said that Veerappan talked about his brothers in the letter. The police, he said, has been harassing his elder brother Madhayan who is a farmer, just because he was Veerappan’s brother. When his younger brother Arjunan died in mysterious circumstances in the hands of the police, Veerappan got totally disheartened and indulged in more crimes.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said that a close associate of Veerappan has surrendered to the police because he was displeased with the activities of Tamil militant movements in the forest area. The police are keeping him in a secret place and carrying on their interrogation.

Meanwhile, apprehension has been raised if Veerappan is knowledgeable about issues like the Cauvery tangle, Manjolai workers problem and Thiruvalluvar statue in Bangalore which have been included in his demands for the release of Kannada film icon Rajkumar and three others.

A section of the intelligentsia strongly believe that the demands have been raised by some militant Tamil groups under whose control Veerappan is functioning now. They also suspect that because of their strong base, Nakkeeran Gopal has not made a clear-cut contact with Veerappan.

Referring to Veerappan’s reported letters sent through his relatives and the reported statement of his wife Muthulakshmi that Veerappan wanted to join politics, they said such reports established the fact that he enjoyed strong support of some political outfits in the State.

Condemning statements issued by some political party leaders in the State supporting general amnesty to him, they said such statements only encouraged him and made the legal course of action against such a dreaded criminal a mockery.

In 1995, when Veerappan kidnapped three forest department staff, the police acted swiftly and rescued them after 20 days.If the demands of Veerappan were met, they said the people would start thinking that only Veerappan could find a solution to many long-felt demands of the State.

Ridiculing the offer of some actors and actresses that they were ready to enter the forest to meet Veerappan, they asked why they had not entered the forests after the DGP Sharma had said there was no bar on them doing that.