The Hindu : Nagappa kidnap: STF nabs three Tamil extremists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Nagappa kidnap: STF nabs three Tamil extremists

By Our Staff Reporter

Erode JAN. 6. In what is claimed to be a breakthrough in the former Karnataka Minister, Nagappa's kidnap case, the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force arrested a key member of a Tamil extremist group, and his two associates at Mundarikadu near Edayakurichi in Perambalur district last night on a charge that they assisted the forest brigand, Veerappan, in the abduction.

Huge quantities of explosives, gelatine sticks, detonator chargers and fuse wires stashed away in the Bannari forests were also seized, the Joint commandant of the STF, W.I. Dawaram said today.

Briefing the media at the STF camp in Sathyamangalam this afternoon about the "unravelling the sequence of events" leading to Nagappa's abduction, Mr. Dawaram said Veerappan had established contact with Illavarasan of Tamilar Vidhuthalai Iyakkam of Vallam in Peramabalur district and sought the assistance of his supporters in abducting "certain well-known personalities" in Karnataka such as the Minister, Raju Gowda, and the former Minister, Nagappa, from Hannur area.

At the instance of Mr. Illavarasan, his close associate, 31-year-old Balamurugan alias Taylor Balu, made several trips to the Karnataka forests and contacted Veerappan through his local conduits, Raja and Amulraj, at Oddaraddi in Chamraj district. During the visits, Balamurugan supplied ration, explosives, AK47 ammunition and 12 bore cartridges to Veerappan.

Details of abduction

An STF team rounded up Balamurugan, Raja and another supporter of the Iyakkam, Packiaraj of Ponparappi in Perambalur district, and brought them to Sathyamangalam. Based on their "confession", explosives were seized from the Bannari forests in Sathyamangalam this morning. The arrested persons also confessed that Veerappan, his close associates, Sethukuli Govindan, Chandra Gowder and another supporter, Packiaraj Selvam of Nainargudikadu, and Shankar of Ponparappi with the help of few other local conduits had executed the abduction of Nagappa at Kamagare on August 25 last year, Mr. Dawaram said.

Nearly 25 persons in Ramapuram and other places in Karnataka had actively helped the Veerappan gang during the abduction. Packiaraj had been with the gang for more than 80 days and had left the forests only a few days before Diwali.

During interrogation, Packiaraj also revealed that he along with the Iyakkam leader, Illavarasan and two others had blasted the high tension tower at Thopiakuppam of Thirunavallur in Villupuram district in November last year, he said.

Help from tribals

Mr. Dawaram claimed that Veerappan was getting help from some tribals in Ramapuram, Madhehalli, Gowthahalli and Ponnachi settlements in Karnataka. Expressing confidence that Veerappan and his gang would be captured soon, the Tamil Nadu chief of the STF said the National Security Guards would be joining the operations against the bandit. The ADGP, S. Nataraj, and the Superintendents of Police, Senthamarai Kannan, Ashok Kumar and Shailesh Kumar Yadav, were present.

The Sathyamangalam Judicial Magistrate tonight remanded all the three persons who have been arrested to judicial custody.

Our Chennai Special Correspondent reports:

The arrests by the Tamil Nadu STF and the "unravelling" of the kidnap conspiracy has helped to strengthen the State's theory of the involvement of some Tamil extremist groups with the forest brigand. But official sources here were not quite sure how it would impact on the current controversy in Karnataka over the kidnap and murder of its former Minister, Nagappa. "Given the improved relations and the closer contacts between the STF on both sides, we hope this will shed new light on the tragic kidnap drama", a senior official said.

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