CRIME

Tragic end of a hostage

RAVI SHARMA
in Kamagere, Bangalore and the
Chengadi forests

Mystery surrounds the death of former Karnataka Minister H. Nagappa, whose body was found in the forest 106 days after he was abducted by Veerappan, the forest brigand.

THE discovery of the decomposed body of former Karnataka Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader H. Nagappa on December 8, 106 days after he was abducted by sandalwood smuggler-turned-bandit Veerappan, has thrown up many questions and theories but no answers. A week after the detection of the maggot-ridden body in the Chengadi forests, which are a part of Karnataka's Male Mahedeshwara Hills forest range, the only fact that is known, as confirmed by the post-mortem report, is that the 65-year-old Nagappa was killed by a single bullet fired from a distance of about 20 feet (around 7 metres).

AFP

The body of former Karnataka Minister H. Nagappa found in the Chengadi forest.

The weapon used was either a revolver or an AK-47 assault rifle, and Nagappa was shot an hour or so after he ate a meal, probably on December 4 or 5. The bullet entered the left side of his chest and pierced his lungs and heart, and could have caused instant death. Forensic experts are also of the view that Nagappa was shot from a height, probably by someone sitting on a tree.

But who killed Nagappa? Was he shot accidentally during a gun battle between the Special Task Force (STF) of either Karnataka or Tamil Nadu and the Veerappan gang? Was he shot by Veerappan as he fled after being ambushed by the STF? Was he, as suggested by members of his family, killed by contract killers working on behalf of a lobby that wanted either to eliminate him or to embarrass the Karnataka government? Was Nagappa shot at the behest of persons who did not want him to be released, lest he should come out and divulge information to which he had been privy during his days in captivity? (The S.M. Krishna government in Karnataka has already been embarrassed by the revelations made in a book by C. Dinakar, the former Director and Inspector General of Police, on the government's handling of the kidnap and release of Kannada film actor Rajkumar.) Or, as has been suggested by some STF personnel and former Karnataka Home Minister P.G.R. Sindhia, was Nagappa killed in a shootout involving `renegade' police officers, who, acting "in their zeal to finish off Veerappan", ventured into the Karnataka forests masquerading as Ayyappa devotees, without informing the government or their superiors? Or, was he killed after a rift in the Veerappan gang?

Long-time watchers of Veerappan's banditry - police records show that he has killed over 130 people, slaughtered nearly 2,000 elephants and looted tonnes of sandalwood, besides picking up crores of rupees in ransom - seriously doubt if Veerappan could have killed his hostage. On the face of it, he gains nothing by slaying his hostage, except reinforcing his image as a ruthless killer. Had that been the objective, he would have announced proudly that he had done it. (On November 21, Veerappan had set a 12-day deadline for the government to fulfil his demands, failing which he threatened to behead Nagappa.)

On the contrary, killing Nagappa could see him losing the sympathy of the tribal and other people living in the villages on the periphery of the forest, who consider him a modern-day Robin Hood. Why should Veerappan want to kill a person he had held hostage for over 100 days, they asked. During this period the Karnataka government had tried its best to fulfil both his demands - it called off the STF's operations and tried its best to see that Veerappan's supporter, Kolathur Mani, got bail in the several cases registered against him.

Informed sources also pointed out that Nagappa's family was in contact with persons who knew Veerappan well. Medicines were sent regularly to Nagappa. G. Raju Gowda, Nagappa's political rival and a Minister in the S.M. Krishna Cabinet, had stated this publicly in the early days of the kidnap. He had also claimed that a barber had gone to the forests to give Nagappa a haircut.

Over the years Veerappan is not known to have killed any of his hostages. In December 1994, when he was perhaps at his most ruthless, Veerappan fled an ambush by the STF, leaving his hostages. Even if he did kill Nagappa, why did he not get rid of the body and other evidence?

Both Nagappa's family and Opposition political parties have called for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Senior Karnataka STF officers feel that the State government should order an inquiry by the Corps of Detectives (COD). S.R. Bommai, the president of the just-formed All India Janata Dal, declared that the appropriate tribute to his slain party colleague would be the ouster of the Krishna government.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister S.M. Krishna expressed the confidence that he would face successfully any political fallout. He accused the Opposition of "double-talk". First, along with pressure from the family and Lingayat religious heads (Nagappa is a Lingayat), it demanded that the operations against Veerappan be called off, but later said that the government had failed to rescue Nagappa. Krishna said it was not his government alone that was to blame for the tragedy.

THE tragic end of the kidnap crisis - which saw the Krishna government lurch from one stand to another - began unfolding with the discovery of a piece of a dhoti tied like a banner to a pole and a tree, in the early hours of December 8, a short distance from Nagappa's residence at Kamagere, 90 km from Mysore. It had the words `Nagappan-Veerappan' written on it and a microcassette in a pouch was tied to it. It also had instructions in Tamil that Nagappa's household be informed about the cassette. Initially, Nagappa's supporters thought that it was yet another cassette from the brigand asking that Mani be sent for negotiations. But on listening to it, they realised that something bad had happened to their leader. According to M. Basavaraju, a Nagappa supporter, news filtered in that after a gun battle between the Veerappan gang and the STF, Nagappa had got separated from the gang and could be somewhere in the Chengadi forest.

The ambulance that brought Nagappa's body to his native town Kamagere, set on fire by his angry supporters.

With Nagappa's family members away in Bangalore that day, people of the village took the cassette to a local teacher. It was then handed over to Ponnachi Mahadevaswamy, a local Janata Dal leader, who took it to the pontiff of the Suttur Mutt. By afternoon, the pontiff had informed the Karnataka government of its contents. A copy of the cassette was also sent to the Commissioner of Police, Mysore.

The main message in the cassette - Veerappan's sixth after the Nagappa abduction - was that he had shifted base to the Cowdahalli forest ranges fearing an attack by the Tamil Nadu STF, but that the STF had caught up with him and opened fire. Nagappa failed to run when he was asked to, said Veerappan in the cassette. Instead, he stood "like a deity" and was hit in the crossfire. Veerappan swore five times "in the name of God" that he was no longer responsible for Nagappa's well-being and health and that he had been forced to abandon him. With the Tamil Nadu STF not announcing Nagappa's death, he had sent the message to Nagappa's family members to enable them to try to retrieve the body and to state that he was no longer aware of Nagappa's condition. By late evening, Karnataka Home Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge announced that Nagappa's body had been found.

Basavaraju and around 40 others left for Chengadi village around 11 a.m. on motorcycles. By early afternoon, others had also joined the search. A reliable source close to the family told Frontline that even as the supporters were trying to trace the body in the Chengadi forests, a voice called out to them saying "I'm here." It was around 4 o'clock in the evening. Thinking that it could be Nagappa, they moved in the direction of the voice, only to find his body reclined against a boulder. Surprisingly, it was largely intact despite the presence of small carnivores and vultures. This gave credence to the argument that the body had been guarded for at least four days, almost right up to its discovery.

Said the source: "Around 6 p.m. there were lots of people around the body, holding torches, but none was sure what to do. Even though the people knew at 11 a.m. that Nagappa's body was somewhere in the forests, no one from the STF went. Only local policemen went, in two jeeps. An aluminium stretcher was brought later, but the bloated body would not fit into it. The body was wrapped in plastic sheets that the Veerappan gang had used for tents and placed on a bamboo stretcher. The body was carried by Nagappa's supporters out of the forest - no policeman helped them."

It was early morning when the body was taken to the Ramapura Primary Health Centre for post-mortem. Also found at the spot - about 25 km from Nagappa's Kamagere house - were packets of edible oil, an oil can, rice and wheat flour, cooking utensils, a transistor radio, a gadget to play video game, and a torch.

Piqued by what they saw as a failure of the government, Nagappa's family rejected the offer of a State funeral. Chaos prevailed at the funeral, with nearly 20,000 supporters of the slain leader lining the road from Ramapuram to Kamagere and stopping the cortege at will. Finally, Nagappa's family members pleaded with them to let the cortege pass. The crowd roughed up Ministers, political leaders, the police personnel and journalists. Police vehicles were torched or stones hurled at them. The police tried to intervene, but when even tear-gassing and caning failed to quell the mob, they withdrew to their respective stations. Journalists were berated for not writing on the enormity of the situation during the abduction - their cameras were smashed. Even the Lingayat pontiff of the Suttur Mutt was criticised for "hobnobbing with the government" instead of securing Nagappa's release.

Nagappa was interred in the backyard of his Kamagere farmhouse amid scenes of grief and anger. Most of the politicians and journalists were prevented from attending the funeral.

ON December 11, in the guise of conducting rituals, Nagappa's supporters and a few of his family members went to the forest and searched the area where the body was found. They found 27 empty casings and three spent bullets of an AK-47 (a magazine contains 30 bullets) within a radius of about 500 metres from the spot where the body lay. Bullet marks were found on a few trees in the area. Ballistic experts who later visited the spot felt that firing had occurred at three places within a range of about 400 metres.

The search party also found a huge, packed gunny bag. It contained a notebook that was used as diary by Nagappa, some of his personnel effects, clothes, medicines and so on, all packed in separate polythene bags. Another gunny bag, probably belonging to Veerappan or his men, was also found. All this led to speculation that the gang had been holed up at the site and had moved out in a hurry.

Nagappa's jottings in the notebook - the first was on August 26 and the last on December 4 - give a glimpse of his travails during captivity. "We have changed camp about 34 times so far, I am not allowed to go for walks and I am finding it exhausting, difficult to climb the hills..." To his wife Parimala, he wrote that she should look after the children well and that she should borrow money from relatives or sell the turmeric crop if they were short of money. He also notes that he was made to sit the whole day and that it was only after nightfall the gang changed location. He was not served any breakfast. Only rice was served in the morning, and some dry fruits, bread and a fruit were given in the evening. The diary also mentions that they had been visited by Mahadevaswamy on October 5, and the amount Rs.40 crores is scribbled, in between incantations.

Though personnel of the Karnataka STF, led by its Commander, Inspector General of Police Jyothi Prakash Mirji, were also present (more to provide protection) during the recovery of the bullets and the diary, questions remain as to why the police did not comb the place after the body was found.

Dr. Kiran Patel, Nagappa's son-in-law, and the rest of the family hold the Krishna government prima facie guilty "for not doing enough fast enough and for not getting Kolathur Mani released earlier". They continuously sought the help of Krishna, his Cabinet colleagues, religious leaders, politicians from the Opposition and even Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Defence Minister George Fernandes.

THE Tamil Nadu STF believes that it was Veerappan who killed Nagappa, his denials notwithstanding. Speaking to this correspondent, Additional Director-General of Police (Tamil Nadu STF) R. Nataraj expressed surprise that people were taken into the area and a person who was a cold-blooded animal was being believed. He said: "Veerappan is a diabolic criminal, a ruthless killer, and people should remember that he had threatened to kill Nagappa. That is what he has done. Even during his days of confinement Nagappa had been abused by Veerappan. Veerappan had always wanted to settle scores with Nagappa. He was getting impatient since Kolathur Mani was not being sent. He has blamed us so as to cause a rift... " He also said that the bandit had demanded Rs.200 crores to release Nagappa.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa strongly defended her STF; she even wrote to her Karnataka counterpart, criticising remarks attributed to Kharge which she felt were fuelling speculation that the Tamil Nadu STF was responsible for Nagappa's death. Said the missive: "The war against Veerappan must be fought in the forest where Veerappan lurks, not in the columns of the media. I request your cooperation and concurrence in this matter. You will agree that the hunt for the brigand should be our only objective and nothing should stand in the way of this objective, particularly not the sort of ambiguous implicatory responses to provocative questions from the press on this sensitive issue, attributed to Kharge.'' Krishna promptly defended his Home Minister by saying that Kharge had not said anything about the Tamil Nadu STF's role.

Why has Veerappan blamed the Tamil Nadu STF? While his enmity with its present Commander, former Director-General of Police Walter Dawaram (he is currently the Commandant of the two STFs), is well-known, he has always been more critical of the Karnataka STF. Once he even showed a preference to surrender before the Tamil Nadu police.

According to forensic experts, it is impossible to arrive at a conclusion on the weapon used to kill Nagappa until ballistic experts visit the spot where the body was found. The discovery of the bullet - it may contain bloodstains - that killed Nagappa could shed light on the weapon used. The experts further opined that the number of weapons used could be established by examining the firing-pin impressions and the striation marks on the bullets. And cartridge cases have several individualistic tell-tale marks that could pinpoint the firearm that fired them. But to do this, all suspected weapons - those issued to STF personnel as well as those in the possession of the Veerappan gang - had to be examined, a task easier said than done.

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