BANGALORE: After four and a half years, the longest man hunt in the history of south India, involving a Common Task Force (CTF) of two states and a BSF battalion for the elusive sandal wood smuggler, Veerappan could end, reports The Economies Times.
The dreaded ivory Poacher Veerappan is said to have been cornered in the Benari forest of the Sathya mangalam forest range in Tamil Nadu and encounters between the gang and the forces of law and order have been increasing over the last few weeks, the paper said.
While declining to spell out a timeframe within which the operations could end, Kamataka’s additional director general of police, S.C_Burman, said, “Things are coming to a head. For the first time in four and a half years, we were able to attack his camp on Scpt.29, just when he was laying. Even though he got away, this was a major success since, earlier, we would invariably come across his camp after he had abandoned iL. The CTF even recently issued radio advertisements (mentioning the names of the important gang members and the rewards for giving information on their where about which was broadcast in Kannada and Tamil.
When asked whether the broad casting of these advertisements could indicate any apprehension in the minds of the CTF that Veerappan could have slipped through the dragnet (as had happened in the case of Sivarasan and Shubha), Burman said, “it is the other way round. We are trying to plug all possible loopholes, these advertisements are meant to increase public awareness” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 29, 1993
