SC tells govts to submit details of plan to release Veerappan men

SC tells govts to submit details of plan to release Veerappan men
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, OCT 11: Coming down heavily on Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Governments for surrendering to the demands of Veerappan, who has kidnapped Kannada film star Rajkumar, the Supreme Court today asked the Governments to place by Tuesday in sealed cover details of meetings between Chief Ministers before they agreed to release 51 associates of the bandit.

A three-judge Bench comprising Justices S P Bharucha, D P Mohapatra and Y K Sabharwal also asked Solicitor General Harish Salve, who appeared for Karnataka, to place in sealed cover if the state governments had an alternate plan to secure the release of the 73-year old matinee idol Rajkumar, who was kidnapped on July 30.

Referring to the haste in which the state governments agreed to Veerappan's demand for release of his associates and the moving of application by the public prosecutor for dropping of TADA charges, it said "It is perfectly clear that everybody has acted in fear of Veerappan".

While adjourning hearing of the petition filed by father of a slain policeman challenging the release of the accused till Tuesday along with PILs filed by advocates B L Wadhera and Adarsh Ganesh, the Court also wanted to know what was the real basis for the Karntaka Government to fear a linguistic unrest in the two states.

"Mere affidavits will not be enough," the Bench said and added "the Governments have to show this to us with the help of primary reports."

The Court had on September one indefinitely stayed the release of the 51 associates of Veerappan while hearing the petition filed by Abdul Karim, father of Shakeel Ahmed who was killed along with Superintendent of Police Harikrishna by Veerappan on August 14, 1992.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Chava Badrinath Babu produced a report of a former officer of the Special Task Force, which was constituted in 1993 specially to nab Veerappan, which had warned that the forest brigand might kidnap Rajkumar.

The Bench referring to the warning, which came true, said "This is shocking and absolutely unbelievable."

Tamil Nadu had in its affidavit claimed that it had shared information with the Karnataka Government a year back about such a possibility but blamed the Karnataka Government of not informing it about the visit of Rajkumar to Gajanur village farm house from where the sandalwood smuggler kidnapped him on the night of July 30.

The Court said the actual reason behind moving the application for dropping of TADA charges were not told to the Designated Court in Mysore and observed "It is pulling wool over the Court's eye."

"You have not stated the fact (Veerappan's demand). You have used other grounds (larger public interest) to get the charges dropped," the Bench said.

The Bench said "One factor which cannot escape anybody's attention is that acceding to the demands of Veerappan may release the film star, but day after tomorrow another will be abducted and the same drama will be enacted."

Referring to the latest issue of The Economist

, which carried a report on the Rajkumar kidnapping, Justice Bharucha said "It is unfortunate that an international magazine speaks this way about the way the two states handled the problem."

The Bench said the whole problem has to be looked from two aspects - "one, there is man who has been an outlaw for last ten years and the STF set up for the purpose has been unable to arrest him. So, what are the genuine efforts that were made to nab the outlaw?"

"Second, what is the genuineness of the apprehension that there would be flames in Karnataka if something happened to Rajkumar. For this purpose, what is the material on record, not affidavits made by bureaucrats, to show that it is based on reality," the Bench asked.