CHENNAI: The audience gathered at MS Subbulakshmi Auditorium at the Asian College of Journalism on Tuesday, went on a time travel of sorts. The narration of the incidents that occured on the night of October 18, 2004, by IPS officer K Vijay Kumar welcomed everyone to the auditorium. It was part of the podcast ‘Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand’ that was to be launched. The audio reverberated, “No matter how often you say it, the last few minutes of waiting are excruciating.
Time slows down and the thoughts start speeding up. You start thinking of everything that can go wrong especially when you are engaged in a deadly game of double bluff with a quarry that has repeatedly proven to be dangerous and unpredictable, changing his plans in the blink of an eye. What if he does so again, I wonder. However, along with the average, I felt a rising sense of anticipation. This could be the night when we would finally capture our target.”
Silence gripped the auditorium after the audio stopped playing. All eyes were now on the officer who was the chief of the Special Task Force (STF) of Tamil Nadu that was involved in the death of the Veerappan during Operation Cocoon of 2004. He said, “10.50 pm to 11.10 were a critical twenty minutes. On that night, things could have really gone out of our hands. But it was very much within our grasp.
More than anything else, there was a sense of faith in myself and the team and confidence that the team will achieve it. That was the only thing that kept me going.” Based on the IPS officer’s book of the same name, Asiaville’s newest true-crime podcast on Audible reenacts the various incidents that shaped Veerappan’s life, from his birth in Gopinatham in 1952 to his death in a shootout in Padi in 2004, as well as the horrific murders and kidnappings that Veerappan was accountable for. During the interaction with the officer and Tuhin Menon, founder and CEO, Asiaville, the audience got a glimpse of STF’s experience of dealing with Veerappan and an insight into the new podcast.
Launching the podcast, Vijay Kumar said, “This is definitely a new experience for me. I keep listening to some of the management and leadership books and tactics on the audio format. These days, people don’t have that much time to sit patiently and slog through books or blogs. So this is a modern and sensible thing to do.”
The officer who currently serves as the senior security adviser to the home ministry also thanked his team members and other police officers who supported him during the operation. Analysing snippets from the podcast, Vijay Kumar shared his experience of that night in detail to the audience who sat in rapt attention.
The original podcast has been broken up into 20 episodes for optimal listening appeal and is loaded with intense background music and sound design. It is available to Audible members at no additional cost.