Southern States - Karnataka   

An unexpected end to the hostage crisis

By R. Krishna Kumar

Mysore Dec. 9. The death of the former Minister, H. Nagappa, held hostage by Veerappan, is the first instance when the hostage did not survive the ordeal in a long saga of abductions carried out by the bandit.

The fact that none of Veerappan's hostages suffered any physical harm and were let off after prolonged negotiations infused a false sense of optimism among the authorities that Mr. Nagappa would return safely. This optimism was reinforced by the "promise" Veerappan made to the watchman at a farmhouse in Kamagere where the bandit and his gang rested for some time after abducting Mr. Nagappa on August 25.

In fact, Veerappan sent the first cassette through the watchman, who was instructed to inform Parimala Nagappa that "no harm would come to her husband and he would be set free after his demands were met".

The subsequent threat issued by the bandit that he would behead his hostage was perceived to be empty intimidatory tactics to browbeat the Government to meet his demands. Similar views were held by others associated in one way or the other with earlier abductions.

The previous abduction drama in which the Kannada cine star, Rajkumar, was held captive by the bandit for 108 days and subsequently released only reinforced the notion that no harm would come to Mr. Nagappa. Again, there was only one incident in the past in which Veerappan was challenged directly by the STF when he took some Forest Department personnel hostage. The STF zeroed in on him when the abduction took place in 1995 and opened fire at the bandit who fled leaving behind his hostages.

The stories describing Veerappan as a messiah of the poor who was basically good at heart but vented his ire against the "establishment" created an aura of a modern-day Robin Hood, which only masked the stark reality of the bandit's ruthlessness.

The ruthless savagery with which he mowed down five policemen in Ramapura Police Station, the cold-blooded massacre of 22 BSF and STF personnel in the Sylvekal forests in 1993 when he mined the area and blew up the vans carrying them, the ambush of four Karnataka policemen near Hogenekal Falls in April 1990, and the killing of six policemen, including the Superintendent of Police, Harikrishna, and the Sub-Inspector, Shakeel Ahmed, in August 1992 was not kept in mind while assessing the bandit's real nature when dealing with the crisis. The "safe return of Nagappa" was taken for granted and described as "only a matter of time" in government circles.

This false sense of optimism was reflected in the lack of urgency in securing the release of Mr. Nagappa.

In the early stages, the Government sought to act tough with the bandit and ruled out negotiations. But, it tried to make up for lost time when the deadline set by the bandit in his fifth cassette, seeking the release of Kolathur Mani, expired on November 30. This was pointed out by various Opposition parties and the Veerashaiva maths, which accused the Government of being casual in its attempt to secure the release of Mr. Nagappa. They compared the Government's handling of Rajkumar's abduction with the present one and pointed out glaring dissimilarities in the approach.

It was only the former Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, C. Dinakar, who had opined in the early days of the crisis that the hostage was not safe as the situation was different this time.

Mr. Nagappa's family members were also apprehensive as they were aware of his deteriorating health.

Parimala Nagappa ran from pillar to post in desperation to convince the State and Union Governments that her husband was not safe. As events unfolded, Parimala Nagappa and her children were proved right.

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• Reward hiked for nabbing bandit
• An unexpected end to the hostage crisis
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• Spontaneous bandh in Gulbarga Dt.
• Beedi workers feel ignored by Centre, State
• Leaders mourn Nagappa's death
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