Koose Munisamy Veerappan (18 January 1952 – 18 October 2004) was an Indian poacher, smuggler, domestic terrorist and bandit who was active for 36 years, and kidnapped major politicians for ransom. He was charged with sandalwood smuggling and poaching of elephants in the scrub lands and forests in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. He was wanted for killing around 184 people, about half of whom were police officers and forest officials. He was also responsible for poaching approximately 500 of the 2,000 elephants killed in the peninsular region where he was active and for smuggling ivory worth US$2.6 million (₹16 crore) worth approximately US$22 million (₹143 crore).

The battle to capture Veerappan cost the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over ₹100 crore.

Personal life

Veerappan was born into a Tamil Vanniyar family in Gopinatham, Kollegala, Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka, formerly known as Madras state, in 1952. As of 2004, his two daughters, Vidya Rani (born in 1990) and Prabha (born in 1993), were studying in Tamil Nadu.

He had support from the Pattali Makkal Katchi party which openly sought for clemency on behalf of Veerappan.

Criminal history

Veerappan began his criminal career by assisting his uncle Sevi Gounder, a notorious poacher and sandalwood smuggler. Veerappan initially worked as a sandalwood and ivory smuggler, killing elephants for their tusks.

After committing his first murder, at the age of 17, he began killing those who resisted his illegal activities. His victims tended to be police officers, forest officials, and informants.

In 1987, Veerappan kidnapped and murdered a Sathyamangalam Taluka forest officer named Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu. This brought his activities to the attention of the Indian Government.

He drew further attention by murdering a senior IFS officer, Pandillapalli Srinivas, in November 1991. Next, there was the August 1992 ambush of a police party, which included a senior IPS officer, Harikrishna.

Veerappan was not averse to killing civilians, and killed a man from his native village for traveling in a police jeep.

Palar blast

In Govindapadi, Mettur, Veerappan killed a Bandari person whom he suspected of being a police informer. As a result, a 41-member team of police officers and forestry officials were called in to investigate. On 9 April 1993, landmines<!-- Yes, I know it wasn't really a landmine but an IED. "Landmine" will do for simplicity in this brief summary section --> were detonated underneath the two vehicles in which the team was traveling. The blast occurred at Palar, near Malai Mahadeswara Hills (present-day Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka) and killed 22 members of the team. Known as the Palar blast, this was Veerappan's single largest mass killing.

Special Task Force

In 1992, the Karnataka and the Tamil Nadu Governments formed a Special Task Force to catch Veerappan.

Through these operations, under charge of Sanjay Arora and Shankar Bidari, the gang was reduced to 5 members.

Meetings with Gopinatham villagers were held, and the 5-crore bounty was announced.

Public outcry and violence ensued in Bangalore as well as other parts of Karnataka. Gopal had earlier visited Veerappan for similar negotiations,

Kidnapping of Nagappa

On 25 August 2002, Veerappan abducted H. Nagappa, a former minister of Karnataka, from his village in Kamagere, Chamarajanagar district. Nagappa had been a minister for Agricultural Marketing from 1996 to 1999.

The encounter to release him failed, and Nagappa was found dead three months later in a Karnataka forest.

Banned organisations like the Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT) and Tamil Nadu Liberation Army helped Veerappan to secure a Robin Hood image and to draft terms of negotiations when he kidnapped prominent people. Kolathur Mani, president of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, formerly the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) party, was arrested and brought to trial as an accomplice in several of Veerappan's crimes, although later acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Death

On 18 October 2004, Veerappan and three of his associates were killed by the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Special Task Force and N. K. Senthamarai Kannan under the leadership of Shankar Bidari and K. Vijay Kumar.

The encounter happened near the village of Papparapatti

in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. Veerappan and his men were lured into an ambulance by an undercover policeman under the pretext of taking them to Dharmapuri for medical treatment.

The entire operation was named Operation Cocoon. Veerappan's associates Sethukuli Govindan, Chandre Gowdar and Sethumani were also killed in the operation.

His death was described as the "death of a demon".

Several human rights activists, who rallied under the banner of the Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL), claimed that circumstantial evidence indicated that Veerappan was murdered in custody by police after being tortured.

Veerappan was buried at Moolakkadu near Mettur in Tamil Nadu, as his family members were more attached to it, and most of his relatives in Gopinatham had left. The police had planned a cremation but decided on a burial after objections from Veerappan's relatives.

Timeline

{| class="wikitable"

|+Timeline of Veerappan's activities

!Year

!Veerappan's Activities

|-

|1962

|Veerappan's first crime. He was just 10 when he gunned down a tusker with the help of his mentor Sevi Gounder at Gopinatham. Nabbed three forest officials and killed them.

|-

|1970

|Joined a gang of poachers.

|-

|27 August 1983

|Killed K. M. Prithvi (age 25), a forest guard, near Mavukal, Ponnampet, Kodagu, Karnataka when the guard tried to prevent elephant poaching by the gang.

|-

|1986

|Arrested and lodged at Boodipada forest guest house but escaped under mysterious circumstances (reportedly bribed a police officer).

|-

|26 August 1986

|Killed Siddarama Naik, a forest watcher at Alegowdana Katte, Gundlupet, Karnataka.

|-

|1989

|Killed three forest personnel after 15 days of abducting them from Begur forest range.

|-

|1992

|Attacked a police station in Ramapura, killing five policemen, injuring two and stealing arms and ammunition. STF killed two gang members in retaliation.

|-

|14 August 1992

|Meenyam Ambush: Trapped and killed Mysore District SP, T. Harikrishna, SI Shakeel Ahmed and four constables named Benegonda, C. M. Kalappa, Sundara and M. P. Appachu, through a false informant near Meenyam in Karnataka.

|-

|1993

|Border Security force (BSF) was deployed to hunt Veerappan but felt that language was the main barrier to carry out a successful operation.

|-

|2000

|Kidnapped Kannada film actor Dr. Rajkumar. Released him after 108 days (ransomed).

|-

|2002

|Kidnapped and allegedly killed former Karnataka minister H. Nagappa. There are other sources, including police of Karnataka who claims that the bullet in the body of the former minister was from a rifle used by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force (possibly the rifle used was stolen from Tamil Nadu task force or crossfire could have caused his death).

|-

|18 October 2004

|Killed by Tamil Nadu Special Task Force members at a checkpoint, when the bandit was travelling in an ambulance driven by a disguised policeman.

In media

Film and television

  • Veerappan – a 1991 Indian Kannada-language crime action film by Raveendranath, starring Devaraj in the titular role of the bandit.
  • Attahasa – a 2012 Kannada film, is based on Veerappan's life and death. The movie highlights the STF operations on Veerappan, kidnapping of Dr. Rajkumar and ultimately the Operation Cocoon. The film was also dubbed to Telugu and Malayalam in 2013 titled as Veerappan and in Tamil as Vana Yuddham.
  • Killing Veerappan – a 2016 Kannada film, written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma based on Operation Cocoon. The film was also released in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam consequently with the same title.
  • Veerappan – a 2016 Hindi full length biographical feature film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film was also released in Tamil as Villathi Villan Veerappan.
  • Sandhanakaadu – a 2007 Tamil television series aired on Makkal TV, based on Veerappan's life starring Karate Raja as Veerappan.
  • The Hunt for Veerappan – A docuseries directed by Selvamani Selvaraj which premiered on Netflix in 4 August 2023.
  • Koose Munisamy Veerappan - A documentary series explores the life of Veerappan using footage shot by Nakkeeran Gopal and archived by Nakkheeran.

Books

thumb|right|Government of India inaugurating a book ′Veerappan, Chasing the Brigand′, written by Senior Security Adviser K. Vijay Kumar, on 8 February 2017

{| class="wikitable"

|+

!Title

!Author

!Language

!Translations

|-

|Veerappan: India's Most Wanted Man

|Sunaad Raghuram

|English

|Marathi: Veerappan: The Untold Story

|-

|Sereyalli Kaleda Hadinalku Dinagalu

|Krupakar & Senani

|Kannada

|English: Birds, Beasts and Bandits: 14 days with Veerappan

|-

|Huliya Nenapugalu

|B. B. Ashok Kumar

|Kannada

|English: Memories of Tiger: Hunting Veerappan

|-

|Veerappan's Prize Catch: Rajkumar

|C. Dinakar

|English

|

|-

|Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand

|K. Vijay Kumar

|English

|Tamil: Veerappan

Kannada: Veerappan: Dantachorana Bennatti

Hindi: Veerappana: Ek Satya Katha

Marathi: Veerappan Viruddh Vijay Kumar

|-

|Veerappan

|Nakkeeran Gopal

|Tamil

|

|-

|Veerappan Valnthathum Veelnthathum

|Sivasubramaniam Periyasamy

|Tamil

|Veerappan's Saga - Rise and Fall

|-

|Veerapan Death Warrant

|S. K. Umesh

|Kannada

|

|-

|Veerapan Blood Warrant

|S. K. Umesh

|Kannada

|

|-

|}

See also

  • Lampiao
  • Paan Singh Tomar
  • Phoolan Devi
  • Seema Parihar
  • Velupillai Prabhakaran

References

  • The Veerappan Saga Rediff.com. 14 July 1997 – 20 October 2004.