BENGALURU: How was Veerappan killed? More than 11 years after the dreaded forest was gunned down, a movie has rekindled the debate on the mystery surrounding his killing.
Killing Veerappan, a multi-lingual flick by maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and starring Kannada actor Shivarajkumar, tells a story that is different from the official account of how Veerappan was brought out of his hideout in the Sathyamangalam forests and killed near Papperapatti village in Dharmapuri district.
Veerappan’s end came at the hands of a Special Task Force during what was called Operation Cocoon on the night of October 18, 2004. Attahasa, another film on Veerappan released in 2013, went by the official version. This version claimed STF personnel posed as arms dealers, befriended the bandit and brought him out of the forest on the pretext of having his eye problem treated.
In Killing Veerappan, the brigand is lured by a former police officer posing as an LTTE sympathiser. The officer promises to take him to Sri Lanka and set up a meeting with LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s aide Mugilan. Veerappan is shown as being keen on meeting Prabhakaran in the hope of reviving his dwindling team. So what is the truth? “There is an element of truth in both versions. But the full truth I will reveal in my book,’’ said K Vijay Kumar, who was heading the STF when Veerappan was killed. He has not seen Killing Veerappan yet, but going by what he has heard, believes both films have grasped a part of what happened.
“Veerappan had multiple problems, like an eye ailment, the need for weapons, the difficulty of keeping alive and recruiting people for his gang. Any one of this could have inspired the movie-makers,’’ said Kumar. Asked what exactly happened on the day he was killed, the former top cop said, in a lighter vein, “To know that you should wait till I write a book. Since several theories are being floated, I will have to write a book.”
Former police officers from Karnataka who were part of STF operations against Veerappan at different points in time are divided on what exactly happened. “What is shown in the movies may not be completely true or false as filmmakers always tend to add something extra. It also depends on sources filmmakers base their script on,” said a retired IPS officer.
Director Varma digs up the past to look at police strategies, the involvement of civilians, and STF’s earlier failed attempts to bring Veerappan out of the jungle. The movie also shows the dark side of the police, and how they used unlawful ways to extract information from people supposedly helping Veerappan.
Some are killed by the STF, which fears they might pose problems in the future. The most startling killing however is the one of a former police officer who played a major role in bringing Veerappan out of the forest. Kumar dismisses this as the wild imagination. “It is not right on my part to comment on such issues without seeing the film. If the director has shown it, then it must be nothing but his wild imagination,’’ he said. Gopal Hosur too termed it as fiction.
Eye Treatment Angle
Gopal Hosur, who served in several senior positions in the Karnataka police, once survived a deadly attack by Veerappan. He said he was not privy to what happened that night, but believes Veerappan was being taken to a hospital on the pretext of eye treatment. Another officer said neither film, Killing Veerapan and Attahasa, had got the truth. “The only thing correct in the two movies is that Veerappan was killed in an ambulance,” he said.