Veerappan wants to talk to State Govt emissary

Bangalore, July 31: Kannada matinee idol and the icon of all Kannadigas, Dr Rajkumar, was abducted along with three others by dreaded sand...

Bangalore, July 31: Kannada matinee idol and the icon of all Kannadigas, Dr Rajkumar, was abducted along with three others by dreaded sandalwood smuggler Veerappan and 12 armed members of his gang from his farm house at Gajanur village in Talawadi of Tamil Nadu around 9.30 Sunday night.

Veerappan, who himself led the 5-minute-long operation, then handed over an audio cassette to Rajkumar’s wife, Parvathamma Rajkumar, asking her to hand it over to Chief Minister S M Krishna. In the cassette, Veerappan said he will disclose his demands only to a representative of the State Government.

The three others abducted are: Son-in-law Govindraj, a relative, Nagesh and an Assistant Film Director, Nagappa. Rajkumar’s driver, Hanumanthu, wanted to accompany them, but Veerappan did not allow him.

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Before leaving, the gang threatened Parvathamma against informing the police. At the same time Veerappan assured her that he would not harm Raj Kumar. Soon after they left, Parvathamma rushed to the Chief Minister’s house in the early hours of Monday and told him what had happened.

Krishna immediately called a high-level closed-door meeting with Home Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge, Home Secretary M B Prakash, DGP C Dinakar and other senior officers to chalk out a strategy to secure Dr Rajkumar’s release.

Krishna later addressed a press conference giving details of the incident and said that the State Government has kept the Union Home Minister L K Advani informed. He assured everyone that the State Government will pull out all stops to secure the release of Karnataka’s beloved Rajkumar.

Soon after the press meet, Krishna left for Chennai along with Parvathamma, Kharge, Dinakar and Chief Secretary B K Bhattacharya to discuss the crisis with his Tamil Nadu counterpart, M Karunanidhi.

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Parvathamma told the media the incident occurred around 9.30 pm after they Ã²Ã² 15 of them Ã²Ã² had all finished dinner. All the 12 men were carrying AK 47 rifles and conducted themselves well. “They asked Rajkumar to come with them and assured us that they would not cause any harm to him.”

Rajkumar got up and immediately agreed to go with them. He did not have time to take his spectacles. On his way out, he requested the dacoit gang not to harm anyone. Parvathamma said Veerappan spoke to her in Tamil and asked whether she knew him. “I immediately said yes.”

Though the family dogs were there nothing could be done due to heavy rains. Asked whether the gang disappeared in any vehicle, she said she did not know how they came and left.

Emotional scenes were witnessed at Dr Rajkumar’s residence at Sadashivanagar and at Chief Minister’s official residence Krishna as large number of friends, fans, producers and well-wishers gathered there. The Film Chamber officer at Shivananda circle too had attracted huge crowd of fans.