Most of these men were arrested in 1992-93. Seven years later, they are still languishing in the Mysore jail, without any trial and any hope of one in near future, their counsel K R Subbukrishna says.

``Even if they were to be indicted of heinous crime'', he says, they have served more than half the maximum punishment they would get. As such he adds, ``a majority have been booked for abetting Veerappan by supplying him essentials, and most of the allegations against them merit bail on their own.''

According to jail authorities, most of these detainees have complied with court conditions and not a single case of patrol jumping has been reportedso far. Most of the 74 are farm workers.

Incidentally, two people accused of supplying gelatin sticks to Veerappan, R Obalchetty and S Muthurajan, managed to obtain bail from the Supreme Court. The others, accused of more trivial charges, have not been as lucky.

Though a special court was formed to hear the cases against the detainees, there are more than 200 witnesses and the court is already overburdened. Cross-examination alone would take over a year.

The SC had also urged states to maintain transparency in these cases. However, the Karnataka Government is yet to carry out its instructions.

Subbukrishna says when the TN Government approached Karnataka on the detainees' behalf, the latter had misled it saying the bail pleas of the 74 had been rejected by both the designated court and then the Supreme Court. According to the lawyer, the former STF chief who had briefed the Tamil Nadu government had himself been accused of excesses during his stint.

The SC, acting on a PIL, had ordered that thedetainees should be categorised and that except the hardcore ones, who include Veerappan's close associates, the others should be released.